Quotes about thief (173 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

“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.

Death , Law , Thinking

“I don't really have many extravagances. I don't fly private jets and I don't have bodyguards and I don't buy crazy things. I have a couple of houses here and there. I bought a very expensive watch, and I am going to buy a really expensive movie poster, the original for The Thief of Bagdad (1940). I love movie posters.”

Leonardo DiCaprio (1974) American actor and film producer

http://www.flixster.com/actor/leonardo-di-caprio/leonardo-dicaprio-quotes

Love , Housing , Flying

“On second thought, maybe the atheist cannot find God, for the same reason a thief cannot find a policeman.”

Laurence J. Peter (1919–1990) Canadian eductor

p. 44 http://books.google.com/books?id=W6bPGIL-_-8C&pg=PA44&dq=%22On+second+thought,+maybe+the+atheist%22: Sometimes misattributed to Francis Thompson, whose quote "An atheist is a man who believes himself an accident" Peter was commenting on.
Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (1977)

God

“But Jehovah’s day will come as a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, but the elements being intensely hot will be dissolved, and earth and the works in it will be exposed.”

Saint Peter (-1–67 BC) apostle and first pope

2 Peter 3:10 http://www.jw.org/en/publications/bible/nwt/books/2-peter/3/, New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures
Second Epistle of Peter

“The sun is a thief: she lures the sea
and robs it. The moon is a thief:
he steals his silvery light from the sun.
The sea is a thief: it dissolves the moon.”

Vladimir Nabokov book Pale Fire

Source: Pale Fire

Light , Sun , Sea

“Medicine is a thankless profession. When you get paid by the rich, you feel like a flunky, by the poor like a thief. How can you take a fee from people who can’t afford to eat or go to the movies? Especially when they’re at their last gasp. It’s not easy. You let it ride. You get soft-hearted. And your ship goes down.”

Louis-ferdinand Céline book Journey to the End of the Night

Source: Journey to the End of the Night

People , Feeling , Heart

“Treating me as a thief is a grave, unacceptable, intolerable insult which stems from contempt and racist condescension.”

Mobutu Sésé Seko (1930–1997) President of Zaïre

Mobutu, in response to claims by the Belgian media that he was taking Belgian aid for himself. Harden, p. 52

“I made a change from a common thief, to up-close and personal with Robin Leach, and I'm far from cheap. I smoke skunk with my peeps all day, spread love it's the Brooklyn way. The moet and alize keeps me pissy. Girls used to diss me, now they write letters cuz they miss me. I never thought it could happen this rapping stuff. I was too used to packing gats and stuff. Now honeys play me close like butter played toast, from the Mississippi down to the East Coast. Condos in queens, indoor for weeks. sold out seats to hear Biggy Smalls speak. Living life without fear, putting 5 carats in my baby girls ears. Lunchies, brunchies. Interviews by the pool, considered a fool 'cause I dropped out of high school. Stereotypes of a black male misunderstood and it's still all good.”

The Notorious B.I.G. (1972–1997) American rapper

Song lyrics, Ready to Die (1994), "Juicy"

Love , Life , Fear , School

“You dare not think that you ever might experience your self differently: free instead of cowed; open instead of tactical; loving openly instead of like a thief in the night.”

Wilhelm Reich book Listen, Little Man!

Listen, Little Man! (1948)
Context: "What right do you have to tell me things?" I can see this question in your apprehensive look. I hear this question from your impertinent mouth, Little Man. You are afraid to look at yourself, you are afraid of criticism, Little Man, just as you are afraid of the power they promise you. You would not know how to use this power. You dare not think that you ever might experience your self differently: free instead of cowed; open instead of tactical; loving openly instead of like a thief in the night. You despise yourself Little Man. You say: "Who am I to have an opinion of my own, to determine my own life and to declare the world to be mine?" You are right: Who are you to make a claim to your life?

Love , Thinking , Night

“Christ comes as a thief in the night, & it is not for us to know the times & seasons which God hath put into his own breast.”

Isaac Newton (1643–1727) British physicist and mathematician and founder of modern classical physics

An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture (1704), regarding his calculations "Of the End of the World" based upon the prophecies of Daniel, quoted in Look at the Moon! the Revelation Chronology (2007) by John A. Abrams, p. 141
Modern typographical and spelling variant:
This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail.
As quoted in "The world will end in 2060, according to Newton" in the London Evening Standard (19 June 2007) http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23401099-the-world-will-end-in-2060-according-to-newton.do
Context: The 2300 years do not end before the year 2132 nor after 2370.
The time times & half time do not end before 2060..... It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner. This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fancifull men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, & by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail. Christ comes as a thief in the night, & it is not for us to know the times & seasons which God hath put into his own breast.

God , Time , Christ , Night

“The thief, as will become apparent, was a special type of thief. This thief was an artist of theft. Other thieves merely stole everything that was not nailed down, but this thief stole the nails as well.”

Terry Pratchett book Sourcery

Source: Sourcery

“I would not put a thief in my mouth to steal my brains.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 3, p. 59 : 'Mattie Ross,' refusing 'Rooster Cogburn's' offer of a drink of whiskey

“I would not put a thief in my mouth to steal my brains.”

William Shakespeare Othello

Source: Othello

“No thief, however skillful, can rob one of knowledge, and that is why knowledge is the best and safest treasure to acquire.”

L. Frank Baum book The Lost Princess of Oz

Source: The Lost Princess of Oz

Knowledge

“I--buy, and I sell."
"You're a thief.”

Tamora Pierce book Alanna: The First Adventure

Source: Alanna: The First Adventure

“Time's the thief of memory”

Stephen King book The Gunslinger

Source: The Gunslinger

Memory , Time

“Steal five dollars and you're a common thief. Steal thousands and you're either the government or a hero.”

Terry Pratchett book Going Postal

Source: Going Postal

“Comparison is the thief of joy.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

As quoted in Becoming a Great School (2013) by Cooper, Gustafson and Salah, p. ix
Disputed

Joy

“Punctuality is the thief of time”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Variant: Punctuality is the thief of time.

Time

“I am always late on principle, my principle being that punctuality is the thief of time.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Time

“Our interest's on the dangerous edge of things.
The honest thief, the tender murderer,
The superstitious atheist.”

Robert Browning Men and Women

"Bishop Blougram’s Apology", line 395; cited by Graham Greene as the epigraph he would choose for his novels.
Men and Women (1855)

“The moon's an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the sun.”

William Shakespeare Timon of Athens

Source: Timon of Athens

Sun

“Try to discover who I am from my choice of words and colors, as attentive people like yourselves might examine footprints to catch a thief.”

Orhan Pamuk (1952) Turkish novelist, screenwriter, and Nobel Prize in Literature recipient

Source: My Name is Red

People , Color

“O me, you juggler, you canker-blossom, you thief of love!”

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream

Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Love

“The robb'd that smiles, steals something from the thief; He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.”

William Shakespeare Othello

Source: Othello

Smile

“The sceptics, who are many and stubborn, claim that, when it comes to human nature, if it is true that the opportunity does not always make the thief, it is also true that it helps a lot.”

José Saramago book Blindness

Source: Blindness (1995), pp. 16-17

Nature , Help

“Once he saw the officials of a temple leading away some one who had stolen a bowl belonging to the treasurers, and said, "The great thieves are leading away the little thief."”

Diogenes of Sinope (-404–-322 BC) ancient Greek philosopher, one of the founders of the Cynic philosophy

Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 45
Quoted by Diogenes Laërtius

“A legal thief, a bloodless murderer,
A fiend incarnate, a false usurer.”

Joseph Hall (1574–1656) British bishop

Virgidemarium (1598) IV.

Falseness

“The proprietor, producing neither by his own labor nor by his implement, and receiving products in exchange for nothing, is either a parasite or a thief.”

Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865) French politician, mutualist philosopher, economist, and socialist

Source: What is Property? (1840), Ch. IV

“As far as the approved method is concerned, it is enjoined in the sastras that intelligent men in this age will take to the sankirtana movement, and by so doing they shall worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Caitanya, whose bodily complexion is golden and who is always accompanied by His confidential devotees to preach this Krishna consciousness movement all over the world. In its present condition, the world can only be saved by introducing this sankirtana, this Krishna consciousness movement. As we have learned from the previous verse, one who is not in Krishna consciousness is considered a thief.”

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977) Indian guru

Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1999. Canto 4, Chapter 18, verse 8, purport. Vedabase http://vedabase.net/sb/4/18/8/en1
Quotes from Books: Loving God, Quotes from Books: Religious and Cultural Elitism

Men , Age , World , Intelligence

“He ransacked his memory like a thief going through another man’s billfold.”

Kurt Vonnegut book The Sirens of Titan

Source: The Sirens of Titan (1959), Chapter 1 “Between Timid and Timbuktu” (p. 22)

Memory

“I've taken stuff from people, too. You know though, if you steal from one person, you're just a thief. But if you steal from everyone, that's research.”

Tony Bennett (1926) American singer

[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.

People , Personality

“The traveller with empty pockets will sing in the thief's face.”
Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator.

Juvenal book Satires

X, line 22.
Satires, Satire X

Travel , Singing

“You must remember always to give, of everything you have. You must give foolishly even. You must be extravagant. You must give to all who come into your life. Then nothing and no one shall have power to cheat you of anything, for if you give to a thief, he cannot steal from you, and he himself is then no longer a thief. And the more you give, the more you will have to give.”

William Saroyan book The Human Comedy

The Human Comedy (1943)

Life , Cheating

“Do not despair: one thief was saved. Do not presume: one thief was damned.”

Aurelius Augustinus (354–430) early Christian theologian and philosopher

Attributed to St. Augustine in The Repentance of Robert Greene, Master of Arts http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/Greene/Repentance_Robert_Greene.pdf (1592) by Robert Greene.
Disputed
Variant: Do not despair; one of the thieves was saved. Do not presume; one of the thieves was damned.

Despair

“Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all cases whatsoever" to his absolute will, am I to suffer it?”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

The Crisis No. I.
1770s, The American Crisis (1776–1783)
Context: It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all. The far and the near, the home counties and the back, the rich and the poor, will suffer or rejoice alike. The heart that feels not now is dead; the blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole, and made them happy. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
My own line of reasoning is to myself as straight and clear as a ray of light. Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all cases whatsoever" to his absolute will, am I to suffer it? What signifies it to me, whether he who does it is a king or a common man; my countryman or not my countryman; whether it be done by an individual villain, or an army of them? If we reason to the root of things we shall find no difference; neither can any just cause be assigned why we should punish in the one case and pardon in the other. Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man.

War , World , Support , Thinking

“The worst type is the Big Politician who gives about half his time to covering up so that no one will know he's a thief. A hard-working crook can buy these birds by the dozens, but he hates them in his heart.”

Al Capone (1899–1947) American gangster

Bird , Time , Heart , Hate

“Two thieves also enjoyed the ride with Jesus. Maybe he's coming back to fulfil the promise that he made that day on the cross. Coming for the thief, rather like a thief himself.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Death never comes at thetime, despite what mortals believe. Death always comes like a thief.”

Christopher Pike book The Last Vampire

Source: The Last Vampire

Death

“Even the best thief in the world can't steal time.”

Ally Carter book Heist Society

Source: Heist Society

World , Time

“What thief does not fight to hold what he has?"

"One that has something better," said Locke.”

Scott Lynch The Lies of Locke Lamora

Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora

Fight

“Pick-a-lock, Pick-a-lock, you'll regret the day,
When you took a mouse thief and locked him away,
Silly cat, look at that, it's two for one,
A thief and a warrior, by dawn will be gone.”

Brian Jacques book Mossflower

Source: Mossflower

Cats

“We’re a different sort of thief here, Lamora. Deception and misdirection are our tools. We don’t believe in hard work when a false face and a good line of bullshit can do so much more.”

Scott Lynch The Lies of Locke Lamora

Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora

Falseness

“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence (1967)
Context: We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood — it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, "Too late."

Life , History , Time

“I turned to Thalia. ‘I’ll hold the flower while you beat up the thief?’
She sighed. ‘Fine. Let’s go catch this jerk.”

Rick Riordan book The Demigod Files

Source: The Demigod Files

Jerk , Flowers

“Time, the greatest thief of all.”

Ally Carter book Heist Society

Source: Heist Society

Time

“A NICE THOUGHT
One was a book thief.
The other stole the sky.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Variant: One was a book thief. The other stole the sky.
Source: The Book Thief

Books

“He could tell her he loved her. He ached to shout it out loud for the gods and everyone to hear. Little good it would do. Better to trust in the moon's promises than in the word of the Thief of Eddis. He was famous in three countries for his lies.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Queen of Attolia

Source: The Queen of Attolia

Love , God , Country

“As a ten-year-old boy, the Thief of Eddis could stop a grown man in his tracks with a single look. Where had that look gone?”

Megan Whalen Turner The King of Attolia

Source: The King of Attolia

Boy

“Do you know why a vandal is worse than a thief?’ asked the man on the right, in a soft growl. ‘A thief steals a treasure from its owner. A vandal steals it from the world.”

Frances Hardinge (1973) British children's writer

Source: A Face Like Glass

World

“I wouldn't mind meeting a dashing thief," the woman's friend whispered. Hale winked at Kat.

Kat raised her eyebrows and whispered, "I'd like to meet one of those, too.”

Ally Carter book Heist Society

Source: Heist Society

“We bear the consequences for what we have done to ourselves, and for the sin that rules this world. Jesus forgave the thief, but he didn't take him down off the cross.”

Francine Rivers book A Voice in the Wind

Source: A Voice in the Wind

World

“I suddenly began to realize that everybody in America is a natural-born thief.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

Nature

“All I wanted to do was lie in the dry grass with my feet in a ditch forever. I could be a convenient sort of milemarker, I thought. Get to the thief and you know you're halfway to Methana.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Thief

Source: The Thief

Lie , Grass

“Hither came Conan the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet.”

Robert E. Howard The Complete Chronicles of Conan

"The Phoenix on the Sword" (1932)
Source: The Complete Chronicles of Conan

“I'm the best kind of thief, the kind that leaves behind items equal in value to those he's stolen.”

Holly Black book White Cat

Source: White Cat

“Age is a terrible thief. Just when you're getting the hang of life, it knocks your legs out from under you and stoops your back. It makes you ache and muddies your head and silently spreads cancer throughout your spouse.”

Sara Gruen book Water for Elephants

Source: Water for Elephants

Life , Age

“Destiny is usually just around the corner. Like a thief, a hooker, or a lottery vendor: its three most common personifications. But what destiny does not do is home visits. You have to go for it.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind

Source: The Shadow of the Wind

Home

“Brand a man as a thief and no one will ever hire him for honest labor - he will be a hardened robber within weeks. The brand does not reveal a person's nature, it shapes it.”

Frances Hardinge book Fly by Night

Source: Fly by Night

Nature , Personality

“The assumption of time is one of humanity's greatest follies. We tell ourselves that there's always tomorrow, when we can no more predict tomorrow than we can the weather. Procrastination is the thief of dreams.”

Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer

Source: The Walk

Dreams , Time , Weather

“The book thief has struck for the first time – the beginning of an illustrious career.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

Books , Time

“A thief never makes a noise by accident.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Thief

Source: The Thief

“How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stol'n on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!”

John Milton (1608–1674) English epic poet

On His Having Arrived at the Age of Twenty-three (1631)

Youth , Time

“This is me apologizing. I am a fool, a bird-brain, a liar and a horse-thief. I wouldn't touch a superlative again with an umbrella.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Fools , Bird , Horse

“For a genius thief you really are a stupid girl aren't you?”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Uncommon Criminals

Stupidity , Girl

“As he mused about these things, he realised that he had to choose between thinking of himself as the poor victim of a thief and as an adventurer in quest of his treasure.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist (1988), p. 44.

Thinking

“Age is terrible thief. Just when you're getting the hang of life, it knocks your legs out from under you and stoops your back”

Sara Gruen book Water for Elephants

Source: Water for Elephants

Life , Age

“Summer came.
For the books thief, everything was going nicely.
For me, the sky was the color of Jews.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

Books , Color , Summer

“You're like the thief who isn't the least bit sorry he stole, but is terribly, terribly sorry he's going to jail. - Rhett Butler”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

“Although the photographer and the art thief were close friends, neither had ever taken the other's picture.”

George Carlin book Brain Droppings

Source: Brain Droppings

Art

“Prometheus, thief of light, giver of light, bound by the gods, must have been a book.”

Mark Z. Danielewski book House of Leaves

Source: House of Leaves

God , Books , Light

“Evie replied with an eye-roll. “Do you think you can manage to not steal anything while I’m gone?”

“The only thing I’m trying to steal is your heart, doll.” Sam smirked.

“You’re not that talented a thief, Sam Lloyd.”

Libba Bray book The Diviners

Source: The Diviners

Thinking , Heart

“Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings.”

John Updike (1932–2009) American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic

A Month of Sundays (1975)
Source: A Month Of Sundays

“The seconds tick. They always do. The power of an entire sun cannot stop them even for a moment, and so death comes between the moments, like a thief of light in the dark.”

Christopher Pike (1954) American author Kevin Christopher McFadden

Source: Black Blood

Death , Light , Sun

“There must be some kind of way out of here,' said the joker to the thief…”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Way

“The petty thief is imprisoned but the big thief becomes a feudal lord.”

Zhuangzi (-369–-286 BC) classic Chinese philosopher

Source: The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

“Even if he was a thief, he was my thief. I could not push him away anymore.”

Janet Lee Carey (1954) American children's writer

Source: Dragonswood

““So, his Slavonic Majesty hires thieves to spy for him. Spying is such a foul business that I am surprised that even a good Angevin thief would stoop to it.” He turned to Lord Peter with a sudden realization. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to imply—”
”That’s all right, Your Highness,” Lord Peter said. “It’s a common reaction. Their spies are dirty, filthy scum, not fit to wipe your boots on, while our spies are noble gentlemen doing dangerous work for the love of King and Country. Would that it were so, Your Highness, but I’m afraid that sometimes the desired image is at fault—in both directions.””

Michael Kurland book Ten Little Wizards

Source: Ten Little Wizards (1988), Chapter 4 (p. 33)

Love , Business , Country

“In Hind there is a Malik (king) who is called Al-juzar (Gujar). Such is awdl (justice) in his kingdom, if the gold is dropped in the way, there is no danger of its being picked up and stolen away by any body. His kingdom is very vast. Arab traders go to him, he makes ahsan (favour) to them, purchases merchandise from them; the purchase and sale are carried in gold coin called tatri, When the Arabs request him to provide a body guard, he says, there is no thief in my kingdom. If there is any incident or loss to your goods, merchandise and money I stand surety. Come to me, I will pay the compensation.”

Mihira Bhoja I (836–885) Ruler of the Gurjara Pratihara dynasty

According to the Arab invaders who was Bhoja's enemy;[Kitsbul Alaq Al-Nafisa Part 4, Ibne Rustah]
About

Money , Justice , Way , Loss

“The older child who has lost or broken some valuable thing will be found when his parents return, not run away, not willing to confess, but in a deep sleep The thief whose case is being tried falls asleep”

Margaret Mead (1901–1978) American anthropologist

Source: 1940s, Balinese Character (1942), p. 39 as cited in: E. Bruce Goldstein (1994) Psychology. p. 511

Parent , Sleep

“And she waited again at the front door with it open, poised between the maw of the dead and loveless house and the outer dark like a frail thief.”

Cormac McCarthy book Outer Dark

Outer Dark (1968)

Waiting , Housing , Dead

“For the first time, we saw everything they could bring to the battle. And it was… nothing. Not even a fizzle. All they can say is "thief, we have our rights, we want our rights, nothing must change, we want more money, thief, thief, thief". And shove some poor artists in front of them to deliver the message. Whereas we are talking about scarcity vs. abundance, monopolies, the nature of property, 500-year historical perspectives on culture and knowledge, incentive structures, economic theory, disruptive technologies, etc. The difference in intellectual levels between the sides is astounding.”

Rickard Falkvinge (1972) former head of the Swedish Pirate Party

P2P Consortium Interview http://www.p2pconsortium.com/index.php?showtopic=15274 (January 12, 2008)

Money , Nature , Knowledge , Change

“Rosanna Spearman had been a thief, and not being of the sort that get up Companies in the City, and rob from thousands, instead of only robbing from one, the law laid hold of her, and the prison and the reformatory followed the lead of the law.”

Wilkie Collins book The Moonstone

[Street, 1868] ( p. 54 https://books.google.com/books?id=FmsOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA18)
Also in Convict Voices: Women, Class, and Writing about Prison in Nineteenth-Century England by Anne Schwan [University of New Hampshire Press, 2014, ISBN 1611686725] ( p. 82 https://books.google.com/books?id=sAqXBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA82)
The Moonstone (1868)

Law

“A thief enters a dark room and feels the various articles therein. He lays his hands upon a table perhaps, and saying "Not this" passes on. Next he come upon some other article — a chair, perhaps — and again saying "Not this" continues his search, till, leaving article after article, he finally lays his hands on the box containing the treasure. Then he exclaims "It is here!"”

Ramakrishna (1836–1886) Indian mystic and religious preacher

and there his search ends. Such, indeed is the search for Brahman.
Source: Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna (1960), p. 733

Feeling , Search , Box

“Rawlings was a burglar and a thief, but like much of the London underworld he would not have anyone “trash” his country. It is a fact that convicted traitors in prison, along with child molesters, have to be kept in seclusion because professional “faces,” if left alone with such a man, are likely to rearrange his component parts.”

Frederick Forsyth book The Fourth Protocol

The Fourth Protocol (1984)

Parting , Country

“If a governor comes out of his government rich, they say he has been a thief; and if he comes out poor, that he has been a noodle and a blockhead.”

Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright

Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part 2: Chapter LV

“…I wonder if you remember the story mummy read us the evening Sebastian first got drunk - I mean the bad evening. "Father Brown" said something like "I caught him" (the thief) "with an unseen hook and and invisible line which is long enough to let him wander to the ends of the world and still to bring him back with a twitch upon the thread."”

Evelyn Waugh book Brideshead Revisited

This quotes The Queer Feet http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/Complete_Father_Brown/chapter3.html by G. K. Chesterton
Brideshead Revisited (1945)

World , Reading

“Photography has fulfilled my adventurous side: it is a real trade. I behaved like a thief in every country where I went, in China, in Africa, in America… all things considered, our trade is situated somewhere between pickpocket and tightrope walker… yes, we steal from people, we take something that belongs to them: their image, their culture.”

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) French photographer

Source: Henri Cartier-Bresson: Interviews and Conversations, 1951-1998, Photographing Is Nothing, Looking Is Everything! Interview with Philippe Boegner (1989), p. 114

People , Country

“The thief upon the cross and the beloved John were alike complete in Christ.”

Anna Shipton (1815–1901) British religious writer

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 362.

Christ

“Today people want love. I can truly and sincerely tell you this Knowledge is over-brimmed with love. This Knowledge is, you know, I can't explain how much love it contains. There is so much love that if you take the water of the whole seas around and on one side we put this love and on the other side we put the whole sea, the sea will be small, the love will still be more. If we take every human man's weight, add it, then we add the love of his love, this Knowledge will be still much bigger than any man's weight. And this Knowledge is love. This is it. This is the love. A thief cannot take if from you, this love is so much. Nobody can cut this love. You can experience it whenever you like.”

Prem Rawat (1957) controversial spiritual leader

Central Hall, Westminster, London, UK, November 2, 1971
1970s

Love , People , Knowledge , Water

“She [Cleopatra] was then a very young girl, but had already begun to look upon the world as a mean, dark place, in which fortune and brightness were to be had only be seizing from others what one could and keeping it in one’s hold as long as possible. Believing that there were not enough desirable things for all to have share in them, she made up her mind that the happiest person was the one who was the cleverest thief. She worked with vicious fanaticism to have what she coveted; thinking that none knew so well as herself the joy of possessing and none therefore deserved so much. When she had won her way she softened as a goddess to mortals—pouring out affection and benevolence with an abandon that was unmatchable and frightening, but irresistible. Then she was happy, and felt virtuous.”

Laura Riding Jackson (1901–1991) poet, critic, novelist, essayist and short story writer

Lives of Wives (London: Cassell, 1939)

World , Way , Girl , Thinking

“The man who has stolen in order never to thieve again remains a thief. Nobody who has ever betrayed his principles can have a pure relationship with life. Therefore when a film-maker says he will produce a pot-boiler in order to give himself the strength and the means to make the film of his dreams — that is so much deception, or worse, self-deception. He will never now make his film.”

Andrei Tarkovsky book Sculpting in Time

Source: Sculpting in Time (1986), p. 124

Life , Dreams

“The Cardinal rose with a dignified look,
He call’d for his candle, his bell, and his book:
In holy anger, and pious grief,
He solemnly curs’d that rascally thief!
He curs’d him at board, he curs’d him in bed,
From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head!
He curs’d him in sleeping, that every night
He should dream of the devil, and wake in a fright;
He curs’d him in eating, he curs’d him in drinking,
He curs’d him in coughing, in sneezing, in winking;
He curs’d him in sitting, in standing, in lying;
He curs’d him in walking, in riding, in flying;
He curs’d him in living, he curs’d him in dying!
Never was heard such a terrible curse!
But what gave rise
To no little surprise,
Nobody seem’d one penny the worse!”

Richard Harris Barham (1788–1845) British writer and priest

Poem: The Jackdaw of Rheims http://www.bartleby.com/246/108.html

Books , Dreams , Lying , Drink

“ […] we can strip off all grammatical clues to sentence structure, all affixes and prepositions, and yet still achieve communication. Thus restricted to nouns, simple "stories" can be told in word chains: Woman, street, crowd, traffic, noise, haste, thief, bag, loss, scream, police…. Again, the reader's past experience of his language is sufficient to restore the missing elements, sufficiently accurately for the purpose. But of course, not only does the reader have experience of sentence structure, enabling him to supply the missing syntactical elements, but also he has experience of typical contexts in which the various words are used; many words bear an aura about with them. It might be more difficult to tell a tale about a policeman who robbed a woman, for instance, with so little redundancy! ”

Colin Cherry (1914–1979) British scientist

Source: On Human Communication (1957), Words and Meaning: Semantics, p.122

Communication , Loss , Past

“200. The hole calls the thiefe.”

George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest

Jacula Prudentum (1651)

“The pursuits of commerce would be as admirable as they are profitable if they were not subject to so great risks: and so, likewise, of banking, if it was always honestly conducted. For our ancestors considered, and so ordained in their laws, that, while the thief should be cast in double damages, the usurer should make four-fold restitution.”

Cato the Elder book De Agri Cultura

Introduction: of the dignity of the farmer
De Agri Cultura, about 160 BC

Law

“Bernie Sanders is an aged, dimwitted thief who's never worked a day in his life where he wasn't taking money from people at gunpoint.”

Bill Whittle (1959) author, director, screenwriter, editor

citation needed

Life , Money , People , Age

“There is a scale in the meaning of the word socialist. In France it means about the same thing as a communist, when one uses plain language. When one uses the language of Monsieur Drumont, it means a Jew. In England a socialist is equal to a French conservative republican. In America it means a thief. In Germany it means an ingenious individual of restricted financial resources, who generally fails to blow up some important personage with wet dynamite. In Italy a socialist is an anarchist pure and simple, who wishes to destroy everything existing for the sake of dividing a wealth which does not exist at all. It also means a young man who orders a glass of water and a toothpick at a cafe, and is able to talk politics for a considerable time on this slender nourishment.”

Francis Marion Crawford (1854–1909) Novelist, short story writer, essayist (1854-1909)

Marzio's Crucifix (1887)

Water , Time , Wealth

“There are no supreme saviours
Neither God, nor Caesar, nor tribune.
Producers, let us save ourselves,
Decree the common salvation.
So that the thief expires,
So that the spirit be pulled from its prison,
Let us fan our forge ourselves
Strike the iron while it is hot.”

Eugène Edine Pottier (1816–1887) French politician

Il n'est pas de sauveurs suprêmes
Ni Dieu, ni César, ni tribun
Producteurs, sauvons-nous nous-mêmes
Décrétons le salut commun
Pour que le voleur rende gorge
Pour tirer l'esprit du cachot
Soufflons nous-mêmes notre forge
Battons le fer quand il est chaud
The Internationale (1864)

God

“You're an awful little guy to be such a big thief.”

Babe Ruth (1895–1948) American baseball player

Addressing Pittsburgh Pirates' right fielder Paul Waner between innings at Forbes Field on Thursday, May 23, 1935, just moments after having his extra base bid foiled by Waner's spectacular catch (and just 2 days before hitting the final three home runs of his major league career, including the first ever to clear Forbes Field's RF roof); as quoted in "Mirrors of Sport: The Babe" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UYhRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=IGkDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1757%2C1439317&dq=after-victimized-awful-guy-such-big-thief by Havey Boyle, in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (May 24, 1935), p. 18

Guy