Every crime is born of necessity. If you want less crime, you must change the conditions. Poverty makes crime. Want, rags, crusts, failure, misfortune—all these awake the wild beast in man, and finally he takes, and takes contrary to law, and becomes a criminal. And what do you do with him? You punish him. Why not punish a man for having consumption? The time will come when you will see that that is just as logical.

—Robert Ingersoll

justice poverty crime logic punishment

More quotations from Robert Ingersoll

Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.

—Robert Ingersoll

Crimes were committed to punish crimes, and crimes were committed to prevent crimes. The world has been filled with prisons and dungeons, with chains and whips, with crosses and gibbets, with thumbscrews and racks, with hangmen

—Robert Ingersoll

prison crime punishment

My creed is this: Happiness is the only good. The place to be happy is here. The time to be happy is now. The way to be happy is to make others so.

—Robert Ingersoll

now happiness good

The moment a man gets money, so many men are trying to get it away from him that in a little while he regards the whole human race as his enemy, and he generally thinks that they could be rich too if they would only attend to business as he has. Understand, I am not blaming these people.… We must remember that these rich men are naturally produced. Do not blame them. Blame the system.

—Robert Ingersoll

politics money wealth enemy systems

Courage without conscience is a wild beast.

—Robert Ingersoll

More quotations tagged with “punishment”

Writing is so difficult that I often feel that writers, having had their hell on earth, will escape all punishment hereafter.

—Jessamyn West

writing escape art punishment

In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments—there are consequences.

—R. D. Ingersoll

nature consequences punishment reward

No good deed goes unpunished.

—Clare Booth Luce

good punishment

I am against using death as a punishment. I am also against using it as a reward.

—Stanislaw J. Lec

life death punishment reward

When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.

gods punishment reward prayers

History

23 Nov 2014 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

Every crime is born of necessity. If you want less crime, you must change the conditions. Poverty makes crime. Want, rags, crusts, failure, misfortune — all these awake the wild beast in man, and finally he takes, and takes contrary to law, and becomes a criminal. And what do you do with him? You punish him. Why not punish a man for having consumption? The time will come when you will see that that is just as logical.