Theft is a crime; but the man who commits it from extreme poverty, with no design but to save his family from perishing, is he an object of pity, or of punishment?
 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774). copy citation

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Author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Source The Sorrows of Young Werther
Topic theft poverty
Date 1774
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by R. D. Boylan
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2527/2527-h/2527-h.htm

Context

“"that some actions are criminal, let them spring from whatever motives they may." I granted it, and shrugged my shoulders. "But still, my good friend," I continued, "there are some exceptions here too. Theft is a crime; but the man who commits it from extreme poverty, with no design but to save his family from perishing, is he an object of pity, or of punishment? Who shall throw the first stone at a husband, who, in the heat of just resentment, sacrifices his faithless wife and her perfidious seducer? or at the young maiden, who, in her weak hour of rapture, forgets herself in the impetuous joys of love?” source