Variant: When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.
Source: The Kite Runner (2003)
Context: There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft.... When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.
“Stealing a man's wife, that's nothing, but stealing his car, that's larceny.”
Source: The Postman Always Rings Twice
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James M. Cain 8
Novelist, short story writer, journalist 1892–1977Related quotes
“I'm not sorry for stealing my husband from his wife.”
Katie Hopkins: " I'm Not Sorry For Stealing My Husband From His Wife http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/08/06/katie-hopkins_n_3711079.html", at huffingtonpost.co.uk, posted: 06/08/20.
After admitting on The Apprentice That she had had an affair with Mark Cross who she knew was married, Hopkins clarified that she had no remorse for this, causing Cross to divorce his wife and eventually marrying him.
As quoted in Art of Communicating Ideas (1952) by William Joseph Grace, p. 389
Disputed
“When a man steals your wife there is no better revenge than to let him keep her.”
Book of Humorous Quotations, ed. Connie Robertson (1998), page 83
“Did you hotwire this car?" I then rephrased my question. "Did you STEAL this car?”
Source: Last Sacrifice
“When a man opens a car door for his wife, it's either a new car or a new wife.”
On marriage, as quoted in "48 of Prince Philip's greatest gaffes and funny moments" https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/04/48-prince-philips-greatest-gaffes-funny-moments/, The Telegraph (2 August 2017)
The Economic Tendency of Freethought (1890)
Context: A man won't steal, ordinarily, unless that which he steals is something he cannot as easily get without stealing; in liberty the cost of stealing would involve greater difficulties than producing, and consequently he would not be apt to steal. But suppose a man steals. Today you go to a representative of that power which has robbed you of the earth, of the right of free contract of the means of exchange, taxes you for everything you eat or wear (the meanest form of robbery), — you go to him for redress from a thief!
“307. Hee wrongs not an old man that steales his supper from him.”
Jacula Prudentum (1651)
“Men will not commonly steal women that are nothing worth.”
Bruton v. Morris (1614), Lord Hobart's Rep. 182.