I stole every nickel and blew it on fine threads, luxurious lodgings, fantastic foxes, and other sensual goodies. I partied in every capital in Europe and basked on all the world's famous beaches.
~ Frank William Abagnale, Jr., Broadway Books (August 1, 2000). Catch Me If You Can
It has been reported that I had written $10 million, $8 million and $5 million worth of bad checks. The actual amount was $2.5 million. I was never on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List as this is reserved for very violent criminals who pose a threat to society. All of the crimes I committed were when I was between the ages 16 and 21.
~ Frank William Abagnale, Jr., Abagnale & Associates (3 September 2002). Comments from Frank W. Abagnale Concerning the book and the film, Catch Me If You Can
They will steal the very teeth out of your mouth as you walk through the streets. I know it from experience.
~ William Saint Julien Arabin (on the citizens of Uxbridge), in Sir W. Ballantine (1882). Some Experiences of a Barrister's Life
I look at the criminal justice system as a sewer pipe and I'm just at the end of it. The police did their job, the courts did their job, now I have to do my job.
~ Bill Armontrout (on his role as executioner), Wall Street Journal (6 November 1984).
Payola is the year's new word. It doesn't sound as ugly as bribe, but it means the same thing.
~ William Attwood, Look magazine (29 March 1960).
I've talked to a number of prosecutors who personally feel that it's very, very hard to do these cases with our system, because of different evidentiary constraints and because of the degree of disclosure you have to make of sensitive information. What I don't understand about the civil libertarians is, if our boys did something wrong in this conflict, they'd be tried in a military court. An Al Qaeda terrorist shouldn't have any claim to different procedures.
~ William P. Barr, in The New York Times (17 November 2001). Despite Some Concerns, Civil Liberties Are Taking a Back Seat
It's not the the money that matters to me. I don't want to do this, I have to.
~ William Duane Bell (remarks while attacking a service station attendant for revenge), The New Zealand Herald (12 December 2002). Savage vengeance at the RSA
Al Capone, in mood benign,
Sent a massive Valentine,
Those who got his commendation
Shot up in his estimation.
~ Will Bellenger, New Statesman (1984).
[W]e may observe that punishments of unreasonable severity, especially when indiscriminately inflicted, have less effect in preventing crimes, and amending the manners of a people, than such as are more merciful in general, yet properly intermixed with due distinctions of severity.
~ William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-69). Book 4, Chapter 1: Of the Nature of Crimes, and Their Punishment
Seven National Crimes:
It is when pirates count their booty that they become mere thieves.
~ William Bolitho
There are men so incorrigibly lazy that no inducement that you can offer will tempt them to work; so eaten up by vice that virtue is abhorrent to them, and so inveterably dishonest that theft is to them a master passion. When a human being has reached that stage, there is only one course that can be rationally pursued. Sorrowfully, but remorselessly, it must be recognised that he has become lunatic, morally demented, incapable of self-government, and that upon him, therefore, must be passed the sentence of permanent seclusion from a world in which he is not fit to be at large.
~ William Booth, In Darkest England and the Way Out (October 1890).
A ship in a safe harbor is not what a ship was meant to do. A cop riding around in a car . . . is not what a cop is meant to do.
~ William J. Bratton, The Los Angeles Times (26 October 2002). New Chief Comes In Swinging
Because we came to understand under the broken windows concept, that disorderly behavior leads to fear. Fear leads to displacement, both socially and physically. Socially, in terms of people staying in their homes and those looking forward to fleeing the cities. . . . And that fear emboldens the criminal element to go on and commit even more significant crime.
~ William J. Bratton, Community 2020: A New Future for the American City, Seminar Series (9 July 1998). Old Values, New Strategies
I don't want to get numbers on the board. The numbers I'm interested in is reducing crime and reducing the number of victims in this city.
~ William J. Bratton (speech at the LAPD annual conference), The Los Angeles Daily News (21 December 2002). Bratton: Empower cops
The department is not strategically engaged in fighting crime. . . . We have 9,000 officers smiling and waving as they drive around in their cars.
~ William J. Bratton, The Los Angeles Times (26 October 2002). New Chief Comes In Swinging
The Mafia crime families were no more intimidating or impactful than the gangs of Los Angeles. If we don't deal with them effectively in Los Angeles, the disease that these gangs represent will spread across this country.
~ William J. Bratton, The Associated Press (4 December 2002). L.A. Chief to Seek Fed Help With Gangs
There is no bright light policy that we can ever put into effect. It is still my intention to pursue . . . implementation of the policy that will prohibit -- to the greatest degree possible -- officers initiating a pursuit based on an infraction. . . . At the same time, there will always be a potential for officers using their best judgment there on the scene, their sixth sense, the circumstances, their expertise to make a decision.
~ William J. Bratton, The Los Angeles Daily News (19 December 2002). Pursuit plan may be reevaluated
You cannot let them control your streets. If they're trying to do it by marking the streets with graffiti, then get rid of it.
~ William J. Bratton (on vandals and gang members defacing property), The Los Angeles Times (25 October 2002). Bratton Sworn In as LAPD's 54th Chief
Your gang situation in this city is unlike anything else in America. It will devour this city. It scares the hell out of me how sophisticated, how entrenched they are. The federal government better recognize that and put the same resources into fighting this that they did with the (Mafia) crime families.
~ William J. Bratton, Reuters (4 December 2002). L.A. Calls on Feds for Help with Gang Violence
Commentary and reporting on the criminal justice system is at the core of First Amendment values, for the operation and integrity of that system is of crucial import to citizens concerned with the administration of government.
~ William Joseph Brennan, Jr. (concurring opinion), Nebraska Press Assn. v. Stuart, 427 U.S. 539 (1976).
I adhere to my view that the death penalty is in all circumstances cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments . . . One of the reasons I adhere to this view is my belief that the "physical and mental suffering" inherent in any method of execution is so "uniquely degrading to human dignity" that, when combined with the arbitrariness by which capital punishment is imposed, the trend of enlightened opinion, and the availability of less severe penological alternatives, the death penalty is always unconstitutional.
~ William Joseph Brennan, Jr. (dissenting opinion), Glass v. Louisiana, 471 U.S. 1080 (1985).
If the deliberate extinguishment of human life has any effect at all, it more likely tends to lower our respect for life and brutalize our values.
~ William Joseph Brennan, Jr., Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 314 (1972).
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military.
~ William S. Burroughs, in Grand Street, no. 37 (1992). The War Universe
Hustlers of the world, there is one Mark you cannot beat: the Mark Inside.
~ William S. Burroughs, The Naked Lunch (1959).
I was new in the game and like all young thieves thought I had a license to steal. It didn't last.
~ William S. Burroughs, The Soft Machine (1961).
You want to make a guy comfortable enough to confess to murder.
~ Bill Clark, New York (24 December 1984).
Who will protect the public when the police violate the law?
~ (William) Ramsey Clark
If, as it appears, it was an act of terrorists, then we will do everything in our power to track them down and hold them accountable.
~ William S. Cohen
The terrorists have to understand they can't force us out of areas of our interests. So we're not going to be driven away by any terrorist group.
~ William S. Cohen
We can never descend to the level of those who killed us. We will (respond) with precision. We will rip them up and bring them to justice . . . The real question for us is, "Do we have the will -- the will to stay the course?"
~ William S. Cohen (on responding to terrorism), Speech at the Bakersfield Business Conference (13 October 2001).
He that first cries out 'stop thief' is often he that has stol'n the treasure.
~ William Congreve, Love for Love (1695). Act 3, scene 14
The incarcerated? These are not political criminals. These are people going around stealing Coca-Cola. People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake and then we run out and we are outraged, saying, "The cops shouldn't have shot him." What the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his hand?
~ Bill Cosby, Remarks at NAACP Legal Defense Fund Event on the 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. Washington, D.C. (17 May 2004).
There is a public mischief in your mirth.
~ William Cowper, The Task (1785). Book I. The Sofa
Anything worth having is a thing worth cheating for.
~ W.C. Fields
I like thieves. Some of my best friends are thieves. Why, just last week we had the president of the bank over for dinner.
~ W.C. Fields
Whatever is worth having is worth cheating for.
~ W.C. Fields
My mouth tasted like cold peanut butter. I felt a burning in my head and my left leg, and I jumped against the straps.
~ Willie Francis (on surviving his first attempt at execution by electric chair).
A street thug and a paid killer are professionals -- beasts of prey, if you will, who have dissociated themselves from the rest of humanity and can now see human beings in the same way that trout fishermen see trout.
~ Willard "Will" Gaylin, The Killing of Bonnie Garland (1982).
As to now, nothing has been reported positive, which is good news, but from the investigation's point of view, I guess it's not good news because it doesn't help point the investigation.
~ William Gerrish, The Associated Press (25 November 2001). Anthrax Victim Mourned in Conn.
As some day it may happen that a victim must be found,
I've got a little list -- I've got a little list
Of society offenders who might well be under ground
And who never would be missed -- who never would be missed!
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert, The Mikado (1885 opera).
My object all sublime
I shall achieve in time --
To let the punishment fit the crime --
The punishment fit the crime;
And make each prisoner pent
Unwillingly represent
A source of innocent merriment!
Of innocent merriment!
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert, The Mikado (1885 opera). Act II
I think when a person has been found guilty of rape he should be castrated. That would stop him pretty quick.
~ Billy Graham, (1974).
I don't expect you to have any positive feelings about me whatever. . . . Because if I was in your place I probably wouldn't have any positive feelings toward me.
~ William Harris, The Sacramento Bee (15 February 2003). SLA case sentencing sparks court drama
There is a heroism in crime as well as in virtue. Vice and infamy have their altars and their religion.
~ William Hazlitt, Characteristics: in the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims (1823).
If child molestation is actually your concern, how come we don't see Bradley tanks knocking down Catholic churches?
~ Bill Hicks, (1993).
Well, he robbed his way from Utah to Oklahoma
And the law just could not seem to track him down
And it served his legend well
For the folks, they'd love to tell
'Bout when Billy the Kid came to town.
~ Billy Joel, in Piano Man (1973 album). The Ballad of Billy the Kid
I definitely want to apologize from the bottom of my heart with everything I have. I regret what happened. If I was in my right state of mind, this would never have occurred. I am so sorry for Mr. Gamboa. I disgraced Chicago and myself. I apologize with my heart.
~ William Ligue, Jr. (on attacking Kansas City Royals first-base coach Tom Gamboa during the Sox-Royals game held September 19), The Daily Southtown (Telephone interview; 31 October 2002). 'I disgraced Chicago': Ligue apologizes for Comiskey attack
I think capital punishment works great. Every killer you kill never kills again.
~ Bill Maher
. . . remember, guns don't kill people -- unless you practice real hard.
~ Bill Maher, ABC TV. Politically Incorrect
In the United States, pornography is the third largest money-maker for organized crime -- after drugs and gambling -- an $8 - 10 billion per year enterprise. In response to the FBI's questions on the subject, 81 percent of serial killers surveyed said that hard-core pornography was their highest sexual interest.
~ Dr. William Marshall
He's the only man I ever knew who had rubber pockets so he could steal soup.
~ Wilson Mizner (of a Hollywood studio chief).
You sparkle with larceny.
~ Wilson Mizner
If crime demand it, let the offender die,
But let no more the Gibbet brave the sky;
No more let vengeance on the dead be hurl'd,
But hide the victim from a gazing world.
~ William Newton, The Supposed Soliloquy of a Father, under the Gibbet of his Son; upon one of the Peak Mountain near Wardlow (c.1815).
Although the most acute judges of the witches and even the witches themselves, were convinced of the guilt of witchery, the guilt nevertheless was non-existent. It is thus with all guilt.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Speaking generally, punishment hardens and numbs, it produces obstinancy, it sharpens the sense of alienation and strengthens the power of resistance.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals (1887).
The broad effects which can be obtained by punishment in man and beast, are the increase of fear, the sharpening of the sense of cunning, the mastery of the desires; so it is that punishment tames man, but does not make him "better."
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals (1887).
I don't believe anybody can be protected with high confidence from car bombs in urban areas. The Israelis and the British have worked as hard on this problem for years as anybody can. They have not provided an adequate protection for their population against car bombs in urban areas. That's -- that is a very, very difficult threat.
~ William J. Perry, PBS TV (17 July 1996). The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
A burglar who respects his art always takes his time before taking anything else.
~ William Sidney Porter (O. Henry), Sixes and Sevens (1911). Makes the Whole World Kin
Make crime pay. Become a Lawyer.
~ Will Rogers
Nowadays it is about as big a crime to be dumb as it is to be dishonest.
~ Will Rogers
The crime of taxation is not in the taking it, it's in the way that it's spent.
~ Will Rogers
There is two types of larceny, Petty and Grand. They are supposed to be the same in the eyes of the law, but judges always put a little extra on you for Petty, which is kind of a fine for stupidness.
~ Will Rogers
They used to take your horse and if they were caught they got hung for it. Now if they take your car and if they are caught it's a miracle.
~ Will Rogers
We don't give our criminals much punishment, but we sure give 'em plenty of publicity.
~ Will Rogers, Quoted in Criswell Freeman The Wisdom of the West (1997).
We don't seem to be able to check crime, so why not legalize it and then tax it out of business?
~ Will Rogers
Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.
~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell
The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.
~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell
One out of 10 guests turns out to be a lexi-klept.
~ William L. Safire
When we, the Workers, all demand: "What are we fighting for?" . . .
Then, then we'll end that stupid crime, that devil's madness -- War.
~ Robert William Service, Michael (1921)
If the death penalty is to be part of our system of justice, due process of law and the fair trial guarantees of the Sixth Amendment require that standards and safeguards governing the kinds of evidence juries may consider must be rigorous, and constitutional rights and liberties scrupulously protected. . . . To relax those standards invites abuse, and significantly undermines the reliability of decisions to impose the death penalty.
~ Judge William Sessions, The Associated Press (25 September 2002). Judge Bars Federal Death Penalty
A little water clears us of this deed.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth
And where the offence is let the great axe fall.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act IV, scene v
Foul deeds will rise,
Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act I, scene ii
He that is robb'd, not wanting what is stol'n,
Let him not know't, and he's not robb'd at all.
~ William Shakespeare, Othello. Act III, scene iii
If thy offences were upon record,
Would it not shame thee. . . .
~ William Shakespeare, King Richard II
Murder most foul, as in the best it is;
But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet
Murder's out of tune,
And sweet revenge grows harsh.
~ William Shakespeare, Othello. Act V, scene ii
O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act I, scene v
The most peaceable way for you, if you do take a thief, is, to let him show himself what he is and steal out of your company.
~ William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing
The robb'd that smiles steals something from the thief.
~ William Shakespeare, Othello. Act I, scene iii
Thou canst not say I did it: never shake
Thy gory locks at me.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth
Truth will come to sight; murder cannot be hid long.
~ William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
Whip him, fellows,
Till, like a boy, you see him cringe his face,
And whine aloud for mercy: take him hence.
~ William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra. Act III, scene xiii
You cannot do justice to the dead. When we talk about doing justice to the dead we are talking about retribution for the harm done to them. But retribution and justice are two different things.
~ Lord William Shawcross (on the War Crimes Bill, which proposed to prosecute ex-Nazis living in Britain), Daily Telegraph, London (1 May 1991)
If the daughters of the people must be served up as dainty morsels to minister to the passions of the rich, let them at least attain an age when they can understand the nature of the sacrifice which they are asked to make.
~ W.T. (William Thomas) Stead (on prostitution), in the Pall Mall Gazette (6 July 1885). Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon I: The report of our secret commission
There are none who are so nice in their language as those who are nasty in their ideas, and there are few so scrupulously averse to any allusion to the subject of prostitution in public, as those who are most familiar with it in private.
~ W.T. (William Thomas) Stead, in Northern Echo (23 October 1872). A Painful Subject
My greatest desire, seconded by my ambition to achieve constructive results, is that no shadow of corruption, dishonesty or wrong-doing shall cloud any of the varied and multitudinous activities of the city government during my term of office.
~ William Hale ("Big Bill") Thompson, Inaugural Address (26 April 1915).
Behind all the political rhetoric being hurled at us from abroad, we are bringing home one unassailable fact -- [terrorism is] a crime by any civilized standard, committed against innocent people, away from the scene of political conflict, and must be dealt with as a crime. . . . [I]n our recognition of the nature of terrorism as a crime lies our best hope of dealing with it. . . .
~ Judge William H. Webster, (15 October 1985).
Fighting terrorism is like being a goalkeeper. You can make a hundred brilliant saves but the only shot that people remember is the one that gets past you.
~ Paul Wilkinson, in Daily Telegraph (1 September 1992).
Today more Americans are imprisoned for drug offenses than for property crimes.
~ George F. Will
Standing together, we won't let a coward like this disrupt our way of life.
~ Anthony Williams, in The New York Times (9 October 2002). Maryland Police Crank Up Sniper Manhunt; Shell Casing Is Found
We now know that the two deaths that were reported to you and that you know about now are confirmed cases of inhalational anthrax.
~ Anthony Williams, Reuters (23 October 2001). Anthrax Confirmed as Cause of Two D.C. Postal Deaths
If you can sit back in a car and kill someone . . . if he sit in a car and shot innocent people, if they find him guilty for that, yes.
~ Carol Williams (on the death penalty for sniper suspect, and former husband, John Allen Muhammad), CNN TV "Larry King Live" (29 October 2002).
For what it's worth, I want everybody to know that I'm sorry. I feel horrible about what happened.
~ Charles "Andy" Williams (on killing two students and wounding 13 other people), The Associated Press (16 August 2002). School Shooter Sentenced to 50 Years
Killed by a man with a switch blade knife, for 43 dollars my friend lost his life.
~ Hank Williams, Jr.
A "dishonest crime" is when somebody else creates the situation for which you are convicted.
~ Harrison A. Williams, Jr., WNET TV (15 January 1986).
It's like raping Alice in Wonderland.
~ Jeanette Williams (on the eve of her husband's expulsion from the U.S. Senate), NBC TV (3 March 1982).
Even though he's my father, in my eyes you reap what you sow, if you did it, you wasman enough to do it, you are man enough to pay the consequences.
~ Lindbergh Williams (on the death penalty for sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad), CNN TV "Larry King Live" (29 October 2002).
In England, if you commit a crime, the police don't have a gun and you don't have a gun. If you commit a crime, the police will say "Stop, or I'll say stop again."
~ Robin Williams
The death penalty, it's not a system of justice, it is a system of -- a so-called system of justice that perpetuates a, shall I say, a vindictive type of response, a vigilante type of aura upon it. We're talking about something that is barbaric. We're talking about something that -- it doesn't deter anything.
~ Stanley Tookie Williams, Interview in Democracy Now! (30 November 2005). A Conversation with Death Row Prisoner Stanley Tookie Williams from his San Quentin Cell
If you want to prove that Wayne Williams did this conclusively, let's get the DNA tests. . . . But if the DNA tests say that this is not their blood, we need to go back into court.
~ Wayne B. Williams (on his 1982 conviction of the "Atlanta child murders"), Quoted in The Standard-Times (21 June 1999). 20-year-old child murders leave doubt
Only the winners decide what were war crimes.
~ Gary Wills, in The New York Times (1975).
Murder is the meaninglessness of life become dynamic: a dramatization of the hidden futility of life. It is the human act, with all its inherent values, placed under the microscope slide where it cannot dissolve into the featureless landscape of all other human acts. The study of murder is not the study of abnormal human nature; it is the study of human nature stained by an act that makes it visible on the microscope slide.
~ Colin Henry Wilson, A Criminal History of Mankind (1984).
If criminals wanted to grind justice to a halt, they could do it by banding together and all pleading not guilty.
~ Dorothy Wright Wilson (on plea-bargaining and the criminal justice system), in The Los Angeles Times (11 August 1974).
What happened today was the act of cowards. Often people who do these things scurry back into the gutters they came from. I can say with confidence that we will spare no effort to track down and punish those responsible. It's important for the world to know that our nation will not bow to terrorists and faceless acts of cowardice.
~ Heather Wilson, News release God Bless America. . . . (12 September 2001)
In all my years on the prowl, I never got over the thrill of hearing the first boom and seeing what it did to a massive block of steel.
~ Herbert Emerson Wilson
The safe that night looked like a soft one [and] the explosion made no more noise than a pig's grunt.
~ Herbert Emerson Wilson
Arresting a single drunk or a single vagrant who has harmed no identifiable person seems unjust, and in a sense it is. But failing to do anything about a score of drunks or a hundred vagrants may destroy an entire community.
~ James Q. Wilson
Crime is the price society pays for abandoning character.
~ James Q. Wilson, in The Public Interest (1985). The Rediscovery of Character: Private Virtue and Public Policy
It was also my purpose to convince such characters that it would no longer be healthy for them to ply their vocation without being handled roughly, a fact they soon discovered.
~ William P. Wood (on so-called "boodlers" or counterfeiters)
Custody, Mr. Officer. Stand him down.
~ (U.S. District Court Judge) William G. Young (while sentencng Richard C. Reid to life in prison), The Washington Post (31 January 2003). Would-Be Shoe Bomber Gets Life Term
© 1999-2008 all things William. All Rights Reserved.
A Collection of Quotes Based on the Name William