Quotes Library

December 25, 2025

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.

Anatole France (1844–1924), French poet, journalist, novelist, The Portable Curmudgeon, Jon Winokur, ed. (New York: 1987), p.167

You are a law-maker, so what legal models (that is, purposes served by laws) do you support? Punitive? Rehabilitative? Restorative?

Those 27 words lay out better than anyone ever has the argument for equity over mere equality.


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