On rare occasions one does hear of a miraculous case of a married couple falling in love after marriage, but on close examination it will be found that it is a mere adjustment to the inevitable.
Emma GoldmanRead
Every society has the criminals it deserves.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that the nature of a society's criminals reflects the values and circumstances of that society.
Emma Goldman's quote implies that the criminals within a society are a reflection of the societal values, injustices, and circumstances that shape individuals. It points to the idea that systemic issues, rather than individual failings, contribute to the emergence of crime, suggesting that as long as societal problems persist, so too will the types of criminal behavior that arise in response to those problems.
Themes
SocietyCriminalsValuesInjusticePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about criminal justice reform.
More from Emma Goldman
All quotes βNo one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.
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To the indefinite, uncertain mind of the American radical the most contradictory ideas and methods are possible. The result is a sad chaos in the radical movement, a sort of intellectual hash, which has neither taste nor character.
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John Burroughs has stated that experimental study of animals in captivity is absolutely useless. Their character, their habits, their appetites undergo a complete transformation when torn from their soil in field and forest. With human nature caged in a narrow space, whipped daily into submission, how can we speak of its potentialities?
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Anarchism is the only philosophy which brings to man the consciousness of himself; which maintains that God, the State, and society are non-existent, that their promises are null and void, since they can be fulfilled only through man's subordination.
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If love does not know how to give and take without restrictions, it is not love, but a transaction that never fails to lay stress on a plus and a minus.
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