“On what is valuable thieves and the law agree.”

— James Richardson

#75
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten Second Essays (2001)

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James Richardson 89

American poet 1950

Sarah Zettel (1966) American writer

Source: Bitter Angels (2009), Chapter 19 (p. 245)

“The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.”

Laozi book Tao Te Ching

Variant translation: The more prohibitions there are, the poorer the people will be.
Source: Tao Te Ching, Ch. 57

“Lists only spell out the things that can be taken away from us by moths and rust and thieves. If something is valuable, don't put it in a list. Don't even say the words.”

Douglas Coupland Hey Nostradamus!

Source: Hey Nostradamus! (2003)

“What is valuable is not new, and what is new is not valuable.”

Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778–1868) English barrister, politician, and Lord Chancellor of Great Britain

From The Edinburgh Review, The Work of Thomas Young (c. 1802).

“The orgy of thieving in Iraq has more to do with the character of the people than the absence of restraining troops. And to think that good, decent, law-abiding young British and American men and women laid down their lives to liberate this thieving mob.”

Robert Kilroy-Silk (1942) British politician

Sunday Express, 4 May 2003

“I think putting thieves to death is not lawful; and it is plain and obvious that it is absurd and of ill consequence to the commonwealth that a thief and a murderer should be equally punished”

Thomas More book Utopia

Source: Utopia (1516), Ch. 1 : Discourses of Raphael Hythloday, of the Best State of a Commonwealth
Context: I think putting thieves to death is not lawful; and it is plain and obvious that it is absurd and of ill consequence to the commonwealth that a thief and a murderer should be equally punished; for if a robber sees that his danger is the same if he is convicted of theft as if he were guilty of murder, this will naturally incite him to kill the person whom otherwise he would only have robbed; since, if the punishment is the same, there is more security, and less danger of discovery, when he that can best make it is put out of the way; so that terrifying thieves too much provokes them to cruelty.