“To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.”
“It's universally wrong to steal from your neighbor, but once you get beyond the-one-to-one level and pit the individual against the multinational conglomerate, the federal bureaucracy, the modern plantation of agro-buinsess, or the utility company, it becomes strictly a value judgement to decide exactly who is stealing from whom. One person's crime is another person's profit. Capitalism is license to steal; the government simply regulates who steals an how much. I always wanted to put together an outlaw handbook that would help raise consciousness on these points while doing something about evening the score. There was also the challenge of testing the limits of free speech.”
Introduction
Steal This Book (1971)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Abbie Hoffman 43
American political and social activist 1936–1989Related quotes
“It's not a crime to be gullible. But it is a crime to steal from a gullible person.”
ABC7 investigation: Self-proclaimed psychics bilk thousands from vulnerable clients http://abc7.com/news/self-proclaimed-psychics-bilk-thousands-from-clients/1954924, ABC News (4 May 2017)
[Dino, Scatena, The new cool cat on the block, http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/15/1081998284897.html?from=storyrhs, Sydney Morning Herald, 2004-04-16, 2006-11-10]
Take-off on an aphorism attributed to Wilson Mizner, in response to Michael Bublé's acknowledgment of having "stolen stuff" from Bennett.
D.J. Gould, "Patrons and Clients: The Role of the Military in Zaire Politics," in Isaac Mowoe, ed., The Performance of Soldiers as Governors, p. 485
From a speech given to the Organization of African Unity on 29 July 1987 https://www.marxists.org/archive/sankara/1987/july/29.htm
As quoted in "Lincoln's Nuanced View of Slavery Explained By Renowned Historian" https://www.registercitizen.com/news/article/Lincoln-s-nuanced-view-of-slavery-explained-by-12077170.php, by Michelle Merlin, The Register Citizen (9 August 2012)
2010s
As quoted in Art of Communicating Ideas (1952) by William Joseph Grace, p. 389
Disputed
in an interview on ABC
1965
“2420. He wrongs not an old Man, who steals his Supper from him.”
Compare Poor Richard's Almanack (1737) : He that steals the old man's supper, do's him no wrong.
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)