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.


More Quotes

August 20, 2025
We who are liberal and progressive know that the poor are our equals in every sense except that of being equal to us.
May 14, 2025
Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right.
March 21, 2025
[Of two fellow congressmen] They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge.
Page 57 of 122