Crime is naught but misdirected energy.

Taken at face value, the line reframes “crime” not as innate depravity but as human vitality and capacity turned into socially harmful channels. It implies that what society labels criminality may arise from blocked opportunities, coercive institutions, or misaligned social arrangements that divert ambition, anger, or ingenuity into illegal acts. The aphorism also carries a reformist (and, in Goldman’s case, radical) critique: if the underlying “energy” is real and potentially productive, then punishment alone misses the point; the deeper task is to change the conditions and structures that distort that energy. In this reading, the quote challenges moralistic condemnation and invites attention to causes, not just acts.