The Law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich, as well as the poor, to sleep under the bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.

Anatole France (1844–1924), a French novelist and public intellectual associated with the Dreyfusard left, put this aphorism into the mouth of a character to satirize “formal” legal equality in Third Republic France. The line reflects late‑19th‑century debates about poverty, vagrancy laws, and the criminalization of survival behaviors among the urban poor. By stressing that the same prohibitions apply to rich and poor alike, France highlights how ostensibly neutral laws can operate in practice as class legislation—punishing those who have no access to housing, food, or social security while leaving the wealthy unaffected.

The quote exposes the irony of “majestic equality”: a legal system can claim impartiality because it applies the same rule to everyone, yet still be deeply unjust because people’s material conditions are unequal. The rich are technically forbidden to sleep under bridges or steal bread, but they have no need to do so; the poor may be driven to such acts by necessity. France’s point is that equality before the law is not the same as substantive justice. The line remains influential in critiques of liberal legalism, showing how rights and prohibitions can mask structural inequality and shift attention from social causes to individual punishment.

“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.”