Leo Tolstoy

“ And when, sickly and depraved from the unhealthy work, from drink and lewdness, foolish and capricious, he aimlessly prowled around the city, as in a dream, entered some shed and abstracted a few worthless mats, then, instead of destroying the causes that led this boy into his present condition, we intend to mend matters by punishing him!
It is dreadful!
Thus Nekhludoff thought, and no longer listened to what was going on around him. He was himself terrified at this revelation. He wondered why he had not seen it before—­how others failed to see it. ”

“ The boy was now being tried as a dangerous creature from whom it was necessary to protect society.
“As dangerous a creature as the prisoner of yesterday,” Nekhludoff thought while watching the proceedings. “They are dangerous, but are we not dangerous? I am a libertine, an impostor; and all of us, all those that know me as I am, not only do not detest but respect me.”
It is evident that this boy is no villain, but a very ordinary person—­every one sees that—­and that he became what he is only because he lived amid conditions that beget such people. ”

“ It is therefore plain that such boys will exist as long as the conditions producing these unfortunates remain unchanged. If any one had taken pity on this boy, Nekhludoff thought while looking at the sickly, frightened face of the boy, before want had driven him from the village to the city, and relieved that want, or, when, after twelve hours’ work in the factory, he was visiting inns with grown-up comrades, some one had told him, “Don’t go, Vania; it is bad,” the boy would not have gone, or got drunk, and the burglary would never have occurred. ”