Daily Inspiration Quote by Ronald Biggs

Biggs’ line lands like a wink delivered through a prison slot: part confession, part branding, part dare. “I am no longer a criminal” performs repentance in the cleanest possible sentence, then immediately undercuts itself with “I gave up that practice years ago,” treating crime not as moral failure but as a hobby he’s simply retired from. The choice of “practice” is the tell. It’s the language of a trade, a craft, something you get good at and eventually stop doing when the market changes or the body gets tired.

That tonal slipperiness is the point. Ronald Biggs isn’t just any ex-con; he’s the Great Train Robbery figure who turned notoriety into a kind of celebrity economy. In that world, innocence is less valuable than control of the narrative. The quote tries to seize the middle ground between two audiences: the authorities who want contrition and the public who secretly prefers the outlaw myth intact. He’s saying, I’m safe now, but don’t forget I once wasn’t.

It also smuggles in a legalistic subtext. “No longer” implies a change in present behavior, not necessarily accountability for the past. It’s a neat bit of semantic fencing: you can stop being a “criminal” as an identity while never quite admitting the crime as a debt.

The cultural context is late-20th-century tabloid fame, when criminals could become characters and characters could become commodities. Biggs’ sentence isn’t a moral statement; it’s reputation management with a punchline, keeping the legend alive while pretending to close the book.