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When the ideal of Society is material gain or possession, as it is largely today, the object of its special condemnation is the thief – not the rich thief, for he is already in possession and therefore respectable, but the poor thief.

— Edward Carpenter Defence of Criminals – Criticism of Immorality (1889)

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More quotes by Edward Carpenter

Every human being grows up inside a sheath of custom, which enfolds it as the swathing clothes enfold the infant.

To keep a man (slave or servant) for your own advantage merely, to keep an animal that you may eat it, is a lie. You cannot look that man or animal in the face.

England's Ideal and Other Papers on Social Subjects (1887)

The money-grubber has been floating with the great current of society, while the poor man has been swimming against it.

Defence of Criminals: A Criticism of Morality (1889)

There is no solution except the freedom of woman—which means of course also the freedom of the masses of the people, men and women, and the ceasing altogether of economic slavery.

Love's Coming of Age (1896)

The law is in a sense the consolidated public opinion of society.

Defence of Criminals: A Criticism of Morality (1889)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Edward Carpenter (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.