Broken Windows Quotes

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

  James Q. Wilson

  Broken, Cost, Care

  James Q. Wilson (1995). “On Character: Essays”, p.126, American Enterprise Institute

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• A writer's heart, a poet's heart, an artist's heart, a musician's heart is always breaking. It is through that broken window that we see the world.

  Alice Walker

  Heart, Artist, Broken

  Alice Walker (2013). “The Cushion in the Road: Meditation and Wandering as the Whole World Awakens to Being in Harm's Way”, p.164, New Press, The

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

  James Q. Wilson

  Order, Broken, Firsts

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• The argument of the broken window pane is the most valuable argument in modern politics.

  Emmeline Pankhurst

  Women, Window Panes, Broken

  Quoted in George Dangerfield, The Strange Death of Liberal England (1936)

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• 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.

  James Q. Wilson

  Broken, Doe, Cost

  James Q. Wilson (1995). “On Character: Essays”, p.126, American Enterprise Institute

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• 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.

  James Q. Wilson

  Broken, Community, Police

  James Q. Wilson (1995). “On Character: Essays”, p.138, American Enterprise Institute

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• People who leave their cars on the street with tape covering their broken windows are obviously too trusting. I mean, when your car did have glass for a window, someone broke into it. How is tape any more of a deterrent? What are the thieves going to say? Ooh, that like looks like duct tape, we can't beat that. Let's look for one with scotch or masking.

  Aaron Karo

  Mean, Scotch, Glasses

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• When Rudy Giuliani became mayor of New York in 1993, his belief in the 'Broken Windows' theory led him to implement the 'Zero Tolerance' crime policy. Crime dropped dramatically, significantly, and continued to for the next ten years. Personally, I feel the time has come for women to introduce their own Zero Tolerance policy on the Broken Windows issues in our lives - I want a Zero Tolerance policy on 'All The Patriarchal Bullshit'.

  Caitlin Moran

  New York, Zero, Issues

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• St. Paul's Chapel stands - without so much as a broken window. Little miracle.

  Rudy Giuliani

  Broken, Miracle, Littles

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• Broken Window Theory: Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside. Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or even break into cars.

  James Q. Wilson

  Fire, Light, Car

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• The one broken window that permanently wouldn't roll up had destroyed her perfectly curled blond prom-hair, and by the time we got to the gym she looked like Marie Antoinette with bedhead.

  Kami Garcia

  Hair, Broken, Window

  Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl (2009). “Beautiful Creatures”, p.14, Hachette UK

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• The point they (Lissitzky, Rodchenko, Tatlin, Gabo, the neo-Plasticists, and so on) all had in common was to be inside and outside at the same time. For me, to be inside and outside is to be in an unheated studio with broken windows in the winter, or taking a nap on somebody's porch in the summer.

  Willem de Kooning

  Summer, Winter, Naps

  "Abstract Expressionist Painting in America". Book by William C. Seitz, p. 134, 1983.

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• 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.

  James Q. Wilson

  Broken, Connections, Window

  James Q. Wilson (1983). “Thinking about Crime”, Vintage

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• But the most horrible spot .... lies....immediately south west of Oxford Road and is known as Little Ireland. The race that lives in these ruinous cottages, behind broken windows, mended with oilskin, sprung doors, and rotten door-posts, or in dark, wet cellars, in measureless filth and stench....must surely have reached the lowest stage of humanity.

  Friedrich Engels

  Lying, Dark, Race

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• One of the heavy marble busts that lined the higher shelves had slid free and was falling toward her; she ducked out of its way, and it hit the floor inches from where she'd been standing, leaving a sizable dent in the floor. A second later Jace's arms were around her and he was lifting her off her feet. She was too surprized to struggle as he carried her over to the broken window and dumped her unceremoniously out of it.

  Cassandra Clare

  Struggle, Fall, Feet

  Cassandra Clare (2011). “Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instrument Series (4 books): City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass; City of Fallen Angels”, p.1004, Simon and Schuster

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• I grew up among farmers in Illinois and so you always have to have the tools you might need in the eventuality of a flat tire or a broken window.

  Nick Offerman

  Illinois, Broken, Might

  Interview with Mary Kaye Schilling, www.gq.com. July 3, 2012.

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