Arresting a single drunk or a single vagrant who has harmed no identifiable person seems unjust, and in a sense it is. But failing to do anything about a score of drunks or a hundred vagrants may destroy an entire community.

Window-breaking does not necessarily occur on a large scale because some areas are inhabited by determined window-breakers whereas others are populated by window-lovers; rather, one unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing.

What most needs explanation is not why some people are criminals, but why most people are not.

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

Four innate sentiments dispose people to a universal moral sense. These are sympathy, fairness, self-control and duty.

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

The great achievement of Western culture since the Enlightenment is to make many of us peer over the wall and grant some respect to people outside it; the great failure of Western Culture is to deny that walls are inevitable or important.