"No people is wholly civilized where a distinction is drawn between stealing an office and stealing a purse"

This quote by Theodore Roosevelt is a commentary on the state of civilization in a society. He is suggesting that a society can not be considered civilized if it draws a difference between stealing a workplace and stealing a handbag. To put it simply, a society that thinks about one type of theft to be more major than the other is not really civilized. This implies that a society needs to treat all types of theft similarly and not make any differences in between them. Roosevelt is recommending that a society should have a merged set of laws and policies that use to all kinds of theft, no matter the worth of the item taken. This would ensure that all forms of theft are treated similarly which no one is provided preferential treatment. By doing this, a society can guarantee that it is truly civilized which all its citizens are dealt with relatively and equally.