“Men are not hang'd for stealing Horses, but that Horses may not be stolen.”

— George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax

Of Punishment.
Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750), Political Thoughts and Reflections

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George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax 65

English politician 1633–1695

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“For it is very hard, my lord," said a convicted felon at the bar to the late excellent judge Burnet, "to hang a poor man for stealing a horse." "You are not to be hanged sir," answered my ever-honored and beloved friend, "for stealing a horse, but you are to be hanged that horses may not be stolen.”

Henry Fielding book The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon

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“3031. It is Wit to pick a Lock, and steal a Horse; but it is Wisdom to let it alone.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Compare Poor Richard's Almanack (1735) : The cunning man steals a horse, the wise man lets him alone.
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

“A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

1754, p. 72 (n. 4)
Referring to critics
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I

“A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!”

William Shakespeare Richard III

Richard, Act V, scene iv.
Richard III (1592–3)

“MAY THE FORCE—”
“—FEED YOUR HORSE!”

Malcolm Azania book The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad

Source: The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad (2004), Chapter 4 “The Coyote Kings vs. the Whyte Wolves” (p. 31)

“How great a quality is horse sense! Someone has defined it as that something which keeps horses from betting on men!”

Vincent Massey (1887–1967) Governor General of Canada

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“It's the same with men as with horses and dogs, nothing wants to die.”

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“"It was not always so," he said slowly. "When I was a boy—stealing horses was not a crime. It was the way of a brave man, a warrior. Horses then served the purposes of the tribe." He could tell them more, but what he could tell them would perhaps disgust them, confuse them. He had told them enough. Tomacito could have told how Indian tribes rode horses, and when the horses grew old and useless, or when the tribe grew desperate for hunger or for shelter, they drank their horses' blood, stripped their hides for teepees, ate the flesh. Cruel, yes, but necessary. They bought horses, traded for horses, and if they had to—and often they had to—they stole horses. The Spaniards came, and then the white man, and they had horses, and the Indians had none, in the beginning. The white man and the Spaniard, on horses, chased the Indian from his own land. The Indians, on foot, were easy to chase, to hunt down, and kill. With horses, the Indians could stand and fight and die, or run and hide and live a little longer. It was an unfair fight from the start, even with horses, but without horses, it wasn't a fight at all. It was a massacre.”

Arnold Hano (1922) American writer

From Running Wild, p. 105
Other Topics

“When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse.”

Osama bin Laden (1957–2011) founder of al-Qaeda

Video interview, quoted in Analyzing Leaders, Presidents and Terrorists by Diane E. Holloway page 325 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Jc7CY1yV1g8C&pg=PA325, with NPR transcript https://www.npr.org/news/specials/response/investigation/011213.binladen.transcript.html (9 November 2001)
2000s, 2002

“But if cattle and horses and lions had hands
or could paint with their hands and create works such as men do,
horses like horses and cattle like cattle
also would depict the gods' shapes and make their bodies
of such a sort as the form they themselves have.”

Xenophanes (-570–-475 BC) Presocratic philosopher

Fragment 15 (D-K)

“Men are not hang'd for stealing Horses, but that Horses may not be stolen.”

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George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax 65

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