James Q. Wilson Quotes

9 Sourced Quotes

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

James Q. Wilson
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
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.

James Q. Wilson
Character is not the enemy of self-expression and personal freedom, it is their necessary precondition.

James Q. Wilson
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
Boys are more likely to develop a masculine personality and acquire strong moral standards when they have a loving and nurturant rather than a threatening or fear-inspiring father.

James Q. Wilson
The most remarkable change in the moral history of mankind has been the rise - and occasionally the application - of the view that all people, and not just one's own kind, are entitled to fair treatment.

James Q. Wilson
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
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