the more laws, the more thieves and bandits
- the more laws, the more thieves and bandits
Attributed to Lao Tzu (c 604-c 531 BC): The more laws and orders are made prominent, The more thieves and bandits there will be (Tao-te Ching lvii. in Wing-Tsit Chan (ed.) Source Book in Chinese Philosophy (1963), 166. Cf. ARCESILAUS (3rd cent. BC): Ὅπου νόμοι πλεῖστοι, ἐκεῖ καὶ ἀδικίαν εἶναι μεγίστην (ἔλεγε) (in STOBAEUS Florilegium xliii. 91); and TACITUS Annals iii. 27 Corruptissima republica plurimae leges, the more corrupt the state the more numerous the laws.
1573 J. SANFORDE Garden of Pleasure 4 Where there are many lawes, there be also or else haue ben many vices.
c 1620 MIDDLETON & ROWLEY World Tost at Tennis (Works ed. Bullen VII. 176) The more laws you make The more knaves thrive by’t.
1667 MILTON Paradise Lost xii. 283 So many Laws argue so many sins Among them.
1732 T. FULLER Gnomologia no. 4663 The more Laws the more offenders.
1766 O. GOLDSMITH Vicar of Wakefield xxvii. The multitude of laws produce new vices, and new vices call for fresh restraints.
2002 Times 19 Mar. 30 Citing the ancient Chinese Lao-tse’s dictum, the more laws, the more thieves and bandits, Norberg insists that ‘the commonest way of corupting a nation through and through is by stipulating permits and controls for production, for imports, for exports and investments’.
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