Crime is naught but misdirected energy.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Crime is not just evil but a form of energy that goes to the wrong place.
- In plain terms
- Bad acts are just energy used in the wrong way.
- What can you take from it?
- Redirect energy instead of just punishing people.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What drives criminal behavior?
- Can energy be redirected?
Another view
It downplays moral responsibility for harmful actions.
More from Emma Goldman
Corruption of politics has nothing to do with the morals, or the laxity of morals, of various political personalities. Its cause is altogether a material one.
Permalink to quote #50 Every daring attempt to make a great change in existing conditions, every lofty vision of new possibilities for the human race, has been labeled Utopian.
Permalink to quote #52 Before we can forgive one another, we have to understand one another.
Permalink to quote #49
Related quotes
Crime is naught but misdirected energy. So long as every institution of today, economic, political, social, and moral, conspires to misdirect human energy into…
Emma GoldmanEmma Goldman quote #3 A man who has blown all his options can't afford the luxury of changing his ways. He has to capitalize on whatever he has left, and he can't afford to admit - …
Hunter S. ThompsonHunter S. Thompson quote #15 Crime butchers innocence to secure a throne, and innocence struggles with all its might against the attempts of crime.
Maximilien RobespierreMaximilien Robespierre quote #19