Public order is a fragile thing, and if you don't fix the first broken window, soon all the windows will be broken.

I believe we ought to subsidize some health care for the poor, but Medicare subsidizes everyone's health care

Police ought to protect communities as well as individuals.... Just as physicians now recognize the importance of fostering health rather than simply treating illness, so the police - and the rest of us - ought to recognize the importance of maintaining, intact, communities without broken windows.

In the long run, the public interest depends on private virtue.

A government without the power of defense! It is a solecism.

A particular rule that seems to make sense in the individual case makes no sense when it is made a universal rule and applied to all cases. It makes no sense because it fails to take into account the connection between one broken window left untended and a thousand broken windows.

One unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing.