Unless by the lawful judgment of their peers .
] Lat., Nisi per legale judicum parum suorum [. -Unattributed Author ,
Magna Charta--Privilege of Barons of Parliament
Law is merely the expression of the will of the strongest for the time being, and therefore laws have no fixity, but shift from generation to generation
.
-Henry Brooks Adams
The laws of a state change with the changing times . -Aeschylus
Where there are laws, he who has not broken them need not tremble .
] It., Ove son leggi ,
Tremar non dee chi leggi non infranse [.
-Vittorio Alfieri, Virginia (II, 1 (
Law is king of all .
-Henry Alford, School of the Heart
) lesson 6 (
Laws are the silent assessors of God . -William R. Alger
Written laws are like spiders' webs, and will like them only entangle and hold the poor and weak, while the rich and powerful will easily break through them .
-Anacharsis, to Solon when writing his laws
Law; an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community . -Saint Thomas Aquinas Law is a bottomless pit . -John Arbuthnot , title of a pamphlet (about 1700 (
Ancient laws remain in force long after the people have the power to change them . -Aristotle
At his best man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst . -Aristotle
The law is reason free from passion . -Aristotle
Whereas the law is passionless, passion must ever sway the heart of man . -Aristotle
Decided cases are the anchors of the law, as laws are of the state .
-Francis Bacon
One of the Seven was wont to say: "That laws were like cobwebs; where the small flies were caught, and the great brake through
".
-Francis Bacon, Apothegms (no. 181 (
All this is but a web of the wit; it can work nothing .
-Francis Bacon, Essays on Empire
A mouse-trap; easy to enter, but not easy to get out of .
-Mrs. Clara Lucas Balfour
Laws are silent in the midst of arms . -John Bate
A law is valuable not because it is law, but because there is right in it .
-Henry Ward Beecher
Laws are not masters but servants, and he rules them who obeys them .
-Henry Ward Beecher
Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not
.
-Bible, Daniel (ch. VI, v. 8
(
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run
with patience the race that is set before us ,
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the same, and is set down at the right hand of
the throne of God .
-Bible, Hebrews (ch. XII, v. 1-2
(
But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully ;
Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of
fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers . -Bible, I Timothy (ch. I, v. 8-9 (
To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them
.
-Bible, Isaiah (ch. VIII, v. 20
(
They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's
.
-Bible, Matthew (ch. XXII, v. 21
(
He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it .
-Bible, Proverbs (ch. XI, v. 15
Liberty, whether natural, civil, or political, is the lawful power in the individual to exercise his corresponding rights. It is greatly favored in law
.
-Henry Campbell Black
It is a very easy thing to devise good laws; the difficulty is to make them effective. The great mistake is that of looking upon men as virtuous, or thinking that they can be made so by laws; and consequently the greatest art of a politician is to render vices
serviceable to the cause of virtue .
-1st Viscount Bolingbroke, Henry St. John
Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto
himself; it invites anarchy . -Louis D. Brandeis , part of his dissent in the case "Olmstead v. United States", 277 U.S. 438, 485
(1928 (
The law is a gun, which if it misses a pigeon always kills a crow; if it does not strike the guilty, it hits some one else. As every crime creates a law, so in turn every law
creates a crime . -Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
Alas, the incertitude of the law ! -Edmund Burke
All human laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory; they have no power over the substance of original justice
. -Edmund Burke
Law and arbitrary power are at eternal enmity . -Edmund Burke
There is but one law for all; namely, that law which governs all law,--the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity; the law of nature and of nations . -Edmund Burke
There was an ancient Roman lawyer, of great fame in the history of Roman jurisprudence, whom they called Cui Bono, from his having first introduced into judicial proceedings the argument, "What end or object could the party have had in
the act with which he is accused ". -Edmund Burke ,
Impeachment of Warren Hastings
I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against an whole people . -Edmund Burke ,
Speech on the Conciliation of America
truly at least, of human laws, that where mystery begins, justice ends ? -Edmund Burke ,
Vindication of Natural Society
The law of England is the greatest grievance of the nation, very expensive and dilatory . -Bishop Gilbert Burnet ,
History of His Own Times
That which is a law today is none tomorrow . -Robert Burton
Our wrangling lawyers . . . are so litigious and busy here on earth, that I think they will plead their clients' causes hereafter, some of them in hell
. -Robert Burton ,
Anatomy of Melancholy--Democritus to the Reader
Laws do not put the least restraint Upon our freedom but maintain 't ;
Or, if it does, 'tis for our good ,
To give us freer latitude ;
For wholesome laws preserve us free , By stinting of our liberty . -Samuel Butler (1 (
Your pettifoggers damn their souls ,
To share with knaves in cheating fools .
-Samuel Butler (1), Hudibras
) pt. II, canto I, l. 515 (
Is not the winding up witnesses ,
And nicking, more than half the bus'ness ?
For witnesses, like watches, go
Just as they're set, too fast or slow ;
And where in Conscience they're strait-lac'd , ' Tis ten to one that side is cast .
-Samuel Butler (1), Hudibras
) pt. II, canto II, l. 359 (
The law of heaven and earth is life for life .
-Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron ( ,
The Curse of Minerva (st. 15
(
Arms and laws do not flourish together .
-Julius Caesar (Gaius -Julius Caesar ( , in Plutarch's "Parallel Lives", "Julius Caesar "
Hard cases, it is said, make bad law .
-Lord John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell
Law never is, but is always about to be . -Benjamin Cardozo
No written law has been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion . -Carrie Chapman Catt ,
in a speech at Senate hearing on Woman's suffrage Who to himself is law, no law doth need
,
Offends no law, and is a king indeed .
-George Chapman, Bussy d'Ambois
) act II, sc. 1 (
The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the crown. It may be frail, its roof may shake, the winds may blow through it, the storm may enter, the
rain may enter; but the king of England cannot enter .
-1st Earl of Chatham, William Pitt
Where law ends, there tyranny begins .
-1st Earl of Chatham, William Pitt
Law is not law, if it violates the principles of eternal justice .
-Mrs. Lydia Maria Child
Possession is eleven points in the law . -Colley Cibber
The good of the people is the chief law .
-Cicero (Marcus Tullius -Cicero) (often called "Tully" for short (
The law of nations .
] Lat., Jus gentium [.
-Cicero (Marcus Tullius -Cicero) (often called "Tully" for short ( , De Officiis (III, 17 (
For as the law is set over the magistrate, even so are the magistrates set over the people. And therefore, it may be truly said, "that the magistrate is a speaking law, and
the law is a silent magistrate ".
-Cicero (Marcus Tullius -Cicero) (often called "Tully" for short ( ,
On the Laws (bk. III, I
(
For the laws are dumb in the midst of arms .
] Lat., Silent enim leges inter arma [.
-Cicero (Marcus Tullius -Cicero) (often called "Tully" for short ( ,
Pro Milone (IV
(
After an existence of nearly twenty years of almost innocuous desuetude these laws are brought forth
.
-Steven Grover Cleveland, Message
Common law is common right . -Lord Edward Coke ,
as quoted by William Penn at his trial
Magna Charta is such a fellow that he will have no sovereign .
-Lord Edward Coke, Debate in the Commons
Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reason. . . . The law which is perfection of reason
.
-Lord Edward Coke, First Institute The gladsome light of jurisprudence .
-Lord Edward Coke, First Institute
Law and equity are two things which God hath joined, but which man hath put asunder . -Charles Caleb Colton
I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis upon the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement
. -Calvin Coolidge
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law .
-Aleister Crowley, Book of the Law (l. 40 (
Men would be great criminals did they need as many laws as they break .
-Lord Charles John Darling
Trial by jury itself, instead of being a security to persons who are accused, shall be a delusion, a mockery, and a snare
.
-Thomas Denman, 2nd Baron Denman ,
O'Connell vs. the Queen
,
II Clark and Finnelly Reports 351
A state is better governed which has few laws, and those laws strictly observed . -Rene Descartes
Whatever was required to be done, the Circumlocution Office was beforehand with all the public departments in the art of perceiving--HOW NOT TO DO IT
.
-Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit
) bk. I, ch. X ( " If the law supposes that," said Mr. Bumble, "the law is an ass, a idiot ".
-Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist (ch. LI (
I know'd what 'ud come o' this here mode o' doin' bisiness. Oh, Sammy, Sammy, vy worn't there a alleybi
! -Charles Dickens ,
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club
) ch. XXXIV (vol. II, ch. VI)) BUY VARYING HARE USED BOOK
If it's near dinner-time, the foreman takes out his watch when the jury has retired, and says: "Dear me, gentlemen, ten minutes to five, I declare! I dine at five, gentlemen." "So do I," says everybody else, except two men who ought to have dined at three and seem more than half disposed to stand out in consequence. The foreman smiles, and puts up his watch:--"Well, gentlemen, what do we say, plaintiff or defendant, gentlemen? I rather think, so far as I am concerned, gentlemen--I say I rather think--don't let that influence you--I rather think the plaintiff's the man." Upon this two or three other men are sure that think so too--as of course they do; and then they get on
very unanimously and comfortably . -Charles Dickens ,
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club
) ch. XXXIV (vol. II, ch. VI)) BUY VARYING HARE USED BOOK
To seek the redress of grievances by going to law, is like sheep running for shelter to a bramble bush . -Lewis W. Dilwyn
When men are pure, laws are useless; when men are corrupt, laws are broken .
-Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
Man became free when he recognized that he was subject to law .
-William James (Will) Durant
Laws alone cannot secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population . -Albert Einstein
Christianity is part of the law of England .
-John Scott Eldon, 1st Earl of Eldon
Good men must not obey the laws too well .
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature .
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Some laws of state aimed at curbing crime are even more criminal . -Friedrich Engels
To go to law, is for two persons to kindle a fire at their own cost, to warm others, and singe themselves to cinders; and because they cannot agree, to what is truth and equity, they will both agree to unplume themselves, that others may be decorated with
their feathers . -Owen Felltham (Feltham (
When the judges shall be obliged to go armed, it will be time for the courts to be closed . -Stephen Johnson Field ,
when advised to arm himself, California
The law sends us to Christ to be justified, and Christ sends us to the law to be regulated . -Rev. John Flavel (2 (
Future lawyers should be more aware that law is not a system of abstract logic, but the web of arrangements, rooted in history but also in hopes, for promoting to a maximum
the full use of a nation's resources and talents .
-Justice Felix Frankfurter ,
in an address to the College of the City of New York, September, 30, 1942
Where there is Hunger, Law is not regarded; and where Law is not regarded, there will be Hunger . -Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack
Our human laws are but the copies, more or less imperfect, of the eternal laws, so far as we can read them
.
-James Anthony Froude ,
Short Studies on Great Subjects--Calvinism
Just laws are no restraint upon the freedom of the good, for the good man desires nothing which a just law will interfere with
.
-James Anthony Froude ,
Short Studies on Great Subjects--Reciprocal Duties of State and Subject
Coercion is the basis of every law in the universe,--human or divine. A law is not law without coercion behind it
.
-James Abram Garfield
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feelings of mankind
. -Edward Gibbon ,
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
) ch. XIV, vol. I (
All rights and laws are still transmitted ,
Like an eternal sickness to the race .
] Ger., Es erben sich Gesetz and Rechte
Wie eine ew'ge Krankheit fort [.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust
) I, 4, 449 (
After all, that is what laws are for, to be made and unmade . -Emma Goldman
The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue . -Oliver Goldsmith
Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law .
-Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller (l. 386 (
A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's printed on . -Samuel Goldwyn
I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution . -Ulysses Simpson Grant, Inaugural Address
My Lords, I have more than once had occasion to say that in construing a statute I believe the worst person to construe it is the person who is responsible for its draft .
-Lord Halsbury, Hardinge Stanley Giffard , 1902 Appeal Cases (p. 477 (
It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that
they cannot be understood . -Alexander Hamilton
The aim of law is the maximum gratification of the nervous system of man . -Learned Hand
The people should fight for the law as for their city wall . -Heraclitus of Ephesus
Law that shocks equity is reason's murderer . -Aaron Hill
What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow; that is the whole Law: the rest is commentary . -Hillel
It is only rogues who feel the restraints of law .
-Josiah Gilbert Holland (used pseudonym Timothy Titcomb (
Laws are the very bulwarks of liberty. They define every man's rights, and stand between and defend the individual liberties of all men
.
-Josiah Gilbert Holland (used pseudonym Timothy Titcomb (
The moment that law is destroyed, liberty is lost, and men, left free to enter upon the domains of each other, destroy each other's rights, and invade the field of each other's
liberty . -Josiah Gilbert Holland (used pseudonym Timothy Titcomb (
Of law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world; all things do her homage, the very least as feeling her care; and the greatest as not exempted from leer power; both angels and men, and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all
with uniform consent admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy . -Richard Hooker
Of what use are laws, inoperative through public immortality ?
] Lat., Quid leges sine moribus
Vanae proficiunt [? -Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), Carmina
) III, 24, 35 (
When we deal with questions relating to principles of law and their applications, we do not suddenly rise into a stratosphere of icy certainty
.
-Charles Evans Hughes
The law is a pretty bird, and has charming wings. It would be quite a bird of paradise if it did not carry such a terrible bill
.
-Douglas William Jerrold
You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause
if improperly administered . -Lyndon Baines Johnson
A country is in a bad state, which is governed only by laws; because a thousand things occur for which laws cannot provide, and where authority ought to interpose
.
-Samuel Johnson (a/k/a Dr. Johnson) ("The Great Cham of Literature ("
The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the benefit of the public
.
-Samuel Johnson (a/k/a Dr. Johnson) ("The Great Cham of Literature (" ,
Johnsoniana (Piozzi's Anecdotes, 58
(
The good need fear no law; it is his safety, and the bad man's awe . -Ben Jonson
The verdict acquits the raven, but condemns the dove .
] Lat., Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas [.
-Juvenal (Decimus Junius -Juvenal), Satires
) II, 63 (
Avoid law suits beyond all things; they influence your conscience, impair your health, and dissipate your property
. -Jean de la Bruyere
The laws sometimes sleep, but never die . -Legal Maxim
We must never assume that which is incapable of proof .
-George Henry Lewes ,
The Physiology of Common Life (ch. XIII
(
Before then any man might instantly use what another had invented; so that the inventor had no special advantage from his own invention. The patent system changed this; secured to the inventor, for a limited time, the exclusive use of his invention; and
thereby added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius, in the discovery and production of new and useful things
. -Abraham Lincoln , in his Second Lecture on Discoveries and Inventions, Jacksonville, Illionois,
February 11, 1859
Let every man remember that to violate the law is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear that charter of his own and his children's liberty
. -Abraham Lincoln
It is safer that a bad man should not be accused, than that he should be acquitted .
] Lat., Hominem improbum non accusari tutius est quam absolvi [.
-Titus Livy, Annales (XXXIV, 4 (
Laws are the sovereigns of sovereigns .
-Louis XIV ("Le Grand ("
The charter will henceforth be a reality .
] Fr., La charte sera desormais une verite [.
-Louis Philippe ("Roi Citoyen" "The Citizan King ("
And folks are beginning to think it looks odd ,
To choke a poor scamp for the glory of God .
-James Russell Lowell, A Fable for Critics
) l. 492 (
All things obey fixed laws .
-Lucretius (Titus -Lucretius Carus (
The law discovers the disease. The gospel gives the remedy . -Martin Luther
Because just as good morals, if they are to be maintained, have need of the laws, so the laws, if they are to be observed, have need of good morals
.
-Niccolo Machiavelli (Macchiavelli (
For as laws are necessary that good manners may be preserved, so there is need of good manner that laws may be maintained
.
] It., Perche, cosi come i buoni costumi, per mantenersi, hanno bisogno delli leggi;
cosi le leggi per ossevarsi, hanno bisogno de' buoni costumi [.
-Niccolo Machiavelli (Macchiavelli ( ,
Dei Discorsi (I, 18
(
The law is a sort of hocus-pocus science, that smiles in yeer face while it picks yeer pocket: and the glorious uncertainty of it is of mair use to the professors than the
justice of it . -Charles Macklin, Love a la Mode
) act II, sc. 1 (
either way with reasonable legal justification . -Hugh Macmillan, Lord Macmillan
Measures should be enacted which, without violating the rights of property, would reduce extreme wealth towards a state of mediocrity, and raise extreme indigence
towards a state of comfort . -James Madison
All tings obey fixed laws .
] Lat., Certis . . . legibus omnia parent [.
-Manilius (Manlius or Mallius) (Marcus or Caius ( , Astronomica (I, 479 (
The law speaks too softly to be heard amidst the din of arms . -Gaius Marius , in Plutarch's "Life of Caius Marius", when complaint made of granting freedom
to Camerians
The law is not so much carved in stone as it is written in water, flowing in and out with the tide
. -Jeff Melvoin
Who loves law, dies either mad or poor . -Thomas Middleton As the case stands .
-Thomas Middleton, Old Law (act II, sc. 1 (
Laws can discover sin, but not remove it . -John Milton
Litigious terms, fat contentions, and flowing fees .
-John Milton, Prose Works
) vol. I, Of Education (
The clatter of arms drowns the voice of the law .
] Fr., Le bruit des armes l'empeschoit d'entendre la voix des lois [.
-Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, Essays
) III, I (
There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws would not deserve hanging tem times in his life
.
-Michel Eyquem de Montaigne , Essays--Of Vanity
All beings have their laws; the Deity has His laws, the material world has its laws, superior intelligences have their laws, the beasts have their laws, and man his laws .
-Charles de Montesquieu (-Charles-Louis de Secondat (
Law should be like death, which spares no one .
-Charles de Montesquieu (-Charles-Louis de Secondat (
No brilliance is needed in the law. Nothing but common sense, and relatively clean fingernails . -John Mortimer, A Voyage Round My Father
) act I (
The law seems like a sort of maze through which a client must be led to safety, a collection of reefs, rocks, and underwater hazards through which he or she must be
piloted . -John Mortimer, Clinging to the Wreckage
) ch. 7 (
The people's safety is the law of God . -James Otis
Petty laws breed great crimes .
-Ouida (pseudonym of Marie Louise de la Ramee (
Nor is there any law more just, than that he who has plotted death shall perish by his own plot
.
] Lat., Neque enim lex est aequior ulla ,
Quam necis artifices arte perire sua [.
-Ovid (Publius -Ovidius Naso), Ars Amatoria
) I, 655 (
The gods have their own laws .
] Lat., Sunt superis sua jura [.
-Ovid (Publius -Ovidius Naso), Metamorphoses
) IX, 499 (
Where law ends, there tyranny begins .
-William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham ,
Case of Wilkes--Speech (last line
(
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws
.
-Plato (originally Aristocles {
You little know what a ticklish thing it is to go to law .
] Lat., Nescis tu quam meticulosa res sit ire ad judicem [.
-Plautus (Titus Maccius -Plautus ( , Mostellaria (V, 1, 52 (
The prince is not above the laws, but the laws above the prince .
] Lat., Non est priceps super leges, sed leges supra principem [.
-Pliny the Younger (Caius Caecilius Secundus ( , Panegyr--Traj (65 (
Curse on all laws but those which love has made . -Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard (l. 74 (
All, look up with reverential awe ,
At crimes that 'scape, or triumph o'er the law .
-Alexander Pope, Epilogue to Satire
) dialogue I, l. 167 (
Mark what unvary'd laws preserve each state ,
Laws wise as Nature, and as fixed as Fate .
-Alexander Pope, Essay on Man
) ep. III, l. 189 (
Piecemeal they win this acre first then, that ,
Glean on, and gather up the whole estate .
-Alexander Pope, Satires of Dr. Donne
) satire II, l. 91 (
Once (says an Author; where, I need not say (
Two Trav'lers found an Oyster in their way ;
Both fierce, both hungry; the dispute grew strong ,
While Scale in hand Dame Justice pass'd along .
Before her each with clamour pleads the Laws . Explain'd the matter, and would win the cause , Dame Justice weighing long the doubtful Right , Takes, open, swallows it, before their sight . The cause of strife remov'd so rarely well , " There take" (says Justice), "take ye each a shell . We thrive at Westminster on Fools like you : ' Twas a fat oyster--live in peace--Adieu ".
-Alexander Pope, Verbatim from Boileau
Let us consider the reasons of the case. For nothing is law that is not reason .
-Sir John Powell, Coggs vs. Bernard , 2 Lord Raymond's Reports 911
A country is considered the more civilized the more wisdom and efficiency of its laws hinder a weak man from becoming too weak or a powerful too powerful
.
-Levi -Levi Primo
Use law and physic only for necessity; they that use them otherwise abuse themselves into weak bodies, and light purses; they are good remedies, bad businesses, and worse
recreations . -Francis Quarles
The purpose of the law is not to prevent a future offense, but to punish the one actually committed . -Ayn Rand
That very law which moulds a tear ,
And bids it trickle from its source ,
That law preserves the earth a sphere ,
And guides the planets in their course .
-Samuel Rogers, On a Tear (st. 6 (
No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man's permission when we ask him to obey it
. -Theodore Roosevelt
If there be any one principle more widely than another confessed by every utterance, or more sternly than another imprinted on every atom of the visible creation, that
principle is not liberty, but law . -John Ruskin
The law often allows what honor forbids .
] Fr., La loi permet souvent ce que defend l'honneur [.
-Bernard Joseph Saurin, Spartacus (III, 3 (
Equity judgeth with lenity, laws with extremity. In all moral cases, the reason of the law is the law
.
-Sir Walter Scott
Ignorance of the law excuses no man; not that all men know the law, but because it is an excuse every man will plead, and no man can tell how to confute him
. -John Selden
If you judge, investigate; if you reign, command .
] Lat., Si judicas, cognosce; si regnas, jube [.
-Seneca (Lucius Annaeus -Seneca), Medea
) CXCIV (
He who decides a case without hearing the other side, though he decide justly, cannot be considered just
.
] Lat., Qui statuit aliquid, parte inaudita altera ,
Aequum licet statuerit, haud aequus fuerit [.
-Seneca (Lucius Annaeus -Seneca), Medea
) CXCIX (
It is the act of the indolent not to know what he may lawfully do. It is praiseworthy to do what is becoming, and not merely what is lawful
.
] Lat., Inertis est nescire, quid liceat sibi .
Id facere, laus est, quod decet; non, quod licet [.
-Seneca (Lucius Annaeus -Seneca), Octavia
) CCCCLIII (
There is a higher law than the Constitution .
-William Henry Seward, in a speech Old father antic the law
. -William Shakespeare
You wear out a good wholesome forenoon in hearing a cause between an orange-wife and a forset-seller, and then rejourn the controversy of threepence to a second day of
audience . -William Shakespeare, Coriolanus
) Menenius at II, i (
He hath resisted law ;
And therefore law shall scorn him further trial
Than the severity of the public power ,
Which he so sets at nought .
-William Shakespeare, Coriolanus
) Sicinius at III, i (
In the corrupted currents of this world
Offense's gilded hand may shove by justice ,
And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law. But 'tis not so above .
There is no shuffling; there the action lies
In his true nature, and we ourselves compelled , Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults , To give in evidence . -William Shakespeare ,
Hamlet Prince of Denmark
) Claudius, King of Denmark at III, iii (
) Other Clown:) But is this law ?
) Clown:) Ay marry, is't--crowner's quest law . -William Shakespeare ,
Hamlet Prince of Denmark
) Other Clown & Clown at V, i (
Yea, and so used it that, were it not here apparent that thou art heir apparent--But I prithee, sweet wag, shall there be gallows standing in England when thou art King? and of resolution thus fubbed as it is with the rusty curb of old father antic the law?
Do not thou, when thou art king, hand a thief . -William Shakespeare ,
King Henry the Fourth, Part I
) Falstaff at I, ii (
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers . -William Shakespeare ,
King Henry the Fourth, Part II
) Butcher at IV, ii (
Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch ,
Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth ,
Between two blades, which bears the better temper ,
Between two horses, which doth bear him best ,
Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye ,
I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgment ; But in these nice sharp quillets of the law , Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw . -William Shakespeare ,
King Henry the Sixth, Part I
) Warwick at II, iv (
Faith, I have been a truant in the law And never yet could frame my will to it ,
And therefore frame the law unto my will . -William Shakespeare ,
King Henry the Sixth, Part I
) Suffolk at II, iv (
Then 'tis like the breath of an unfee'd lawyer--you gave me nothing for't .
-William Shakespeare, King Lear
) Fool at I, iv (
Therefore to's seemeth it a needful course ,
Before we enter his forbidden gates ,
To know his pleasure; and in that behalf ;
Bold of your worthiness, we single you
As our best-moving fair solicitor .
-William Shakespeare, Love's Labor's Lost
) Princess of France at II, i (
We have strict statutes and most biting laws ,
The needful bits and curbs to headstrong jades ,
Which for this fourteen years we have let slip ;
Even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave ,
That goes not out to prey .
-William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
) Vincentio, the Duke at I, iii (
We must not make a scarecrow of the law ,
Setting it up to fear the birds of prey ,
And let it keep one shape, till custom make it
Their perch and not their terror .
-William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
) Angelo at II, i (
Whoe'er he be that in this foul proceeding Hath thus beguiled your daughter of herself ,
And you of her, the bloody book of law
You shall yourself read in the bitter letter
After your own sense; yea, though our proper son
Stood in your action . -William Shakespeare ,
Othello the Moor of Venice
) Duke of Venice at I, iii (
When law can do no right ,
Let it be lawful that law bar no wrong . -William Shakespeare ,
The Life and Death of King John
) Constance at III, i ( O my lord , Press not a falling man too far! 'Tis virtue
His faults lie open to the laws; let them ,
Not you, correct him . -William Shakespeare ,
The Life of King Henry the Eighth
) Chamberlain at III, ii (
We are for law. He dies . -William Shakespeare ,
The Life of Timon of Athens
) First Senator at III, v (
To offend and judge are distinct offices ,
And of opposed natures . -William Shakespeare ,
The Merchant of Venice
) Portia at II, ix) BUY VARYING HARE USED BOOK
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt But being seasoned with a gracious voice ,
Obscures the show of evil ? -William Shakespeare ,
The Merchant of Venice
) Bassanio at III, ii) BUY VARYING HARE USED BOOK
It must not be. There is no power in Venice
Can alter a decree established .
' Twill be recorded for a precedent ,
And carry an error by the same example
Will rush into the state. It cannot be . -William Shakespeare ,
The Merchant of Venice
) Portia at III, ii) BUY VARYING HARE USED BOOK
Sir, I shall not be slack, in sign whereof ,
Please ye we may convive this afternoon
And quaff carouses to our mistress's health ,
And do as adversaries do in law ,
Strive mightily but eat and drink as friends . -William Shakespeare ,
The Taming of the Shrew
) Tranio at I, ii (
I am a subject ,
And I challenge law. Attorneys are denied me ,
And therefore personally I lay my claim
To my inheritance of free descent . -William Shakespeare ,
The Tragedy of King Richard the Second
) Bolingbroke at II, iii (
Are you drawn forth among a world of men To slay the innocent? What is my offense ?
Where is the evidence that doth accuse me ?
What lawful quest have given their verdict up
Unto the frowning judge? or who pronounced
The bitter sentence of poor Clarence's death
Before I be convict by course of law ? To threaten me with death is most unlawful : I charge you, as you hope [to have redemption
By Christ's dear blood shed for our grievous sins [, That you depart, and lay no hands on me . The deed you undertake is damnable . -William Shakespeare ,
The Tragedy of King Richard the Third
) Clarence at I, iv (
And they have been grand-jurymen since before Noah was a sailor . -William Shakespeare ,
Twelfth Night, or, What You Will
) Toby at III, ii (
Still you keep o' th' windy side of the law . -William Shakespeare ,
Twelfth Night, or, What You Will
) Fabian at III, iv (
Laws are generally found to be nets of such a texture. as the little creep through, the great break through, and the middle-sized entangled in
.
-William Shenstone, On Politics
Laws are not made like lime-twigs or nets, to catch everything that toucheth them; but rather like sea-marks, to guide from shipwreck the ignorant passenger
.
-Sir Philip Sidney (Sydney (
When to raise the wind some lawyer tries ,
Mysterious skins of parchment meet our eyes ;
On speeds the smiling suit . . . . Till stript--nonsuited--he is doomed to toss
In legal shipwreck, and redeemless loss , Lucky, if like Ulysses, he can keep
His head above the waters of the deep .
-Horace Smith and James Smith ,
Rejected Addresses--Architectural Atoms
, ) translation by Dr. B.T (.
Laws are like spiders' webs which, if anything small falls into them they ensnare it, but large things break through and escape
. -Solon
To make an empire durable, the magistrates must obey the laws and the people the magistrates . -Solon
Men keep their engagements when it is an advantage to both parties not to break them . -Solon, Answer to Anacharsis ,
in Plutarch's "Life of Solon "
Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law . -Sophocles
What a cage is to the wild beast, law is to the selfish man . -Herbert Spencer
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all laws into contempt . -Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Law is a bottomless pit; it is a cormorant,--a harpy that devours everything . -Jonathan Swift
Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through . -Jonathan Swift ,
Essay on the Faculties of the Mind
He hurts the good who spares the bad .
] Lat., Bonis nocet quisquis pepercerit malis [.
-Syrus (Publilius -Syrus), Maxims
The judge is condemned when the guilty is acquitted .
] Lat., Judex damnatur cum nocens absolvitur [.
-Syrus (Publilius -Syrus), Maxims
When the state is most corrupt, then the laws are most multiplied .
-Tacitus (Caius Cornelius -Tacitus (
The more corrupt the state, the more laws .
] Lat., Corruptissima republica, plurimae leges [.
-Tacitus (Caius Cornelius -Tacitus), Annales
) III, 27 (
In all things there is a kind of law of cycles .
] Lat., Rebus cunctis inest quidam velut orbis [.
-Tacitus (Caius Cornelius -Tacitus), Annales
) III, 55 (
Our magistrates discharge their duties best at the beginning; and fall off toward the end
.
] Lat., Initia magistratuum nostrorum meliora, ferme finis inclinat [.
-Tacitus (Caius Cornelius -Tacitus), Annales
) XV, 31 (
A legal decision depends not on the teacher's age, but on the force of his argument . -The Talmud
A man must not go to law because the musician keeps false time with his foot .
-Jeremy Taylor vol. VIII, p. 145
What the law insists upon, let it have of your own free will .
] Lat., Quod vos jus cogit, id voluntate impetret [.
-Terence (Publius Terentius Afer), Adelphi
) III, 4, 44 (
The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice .
] Lat., Jus summum saepe summa est malitia [.
-Terence (Publius Terentius Afer ( ,
Heauton timoroumenos (IV, V, 48
(
The highest law gives a thing to him who can use it .
-Henry David Thoreau
The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free .
-Henry David Thoreau
No man e'er felt the halter draw ,
With good opinion of the law .
-John Trumbull (1), McFingal
) canto III, l. 489 (
We enact many laws that manufacture criminals, and then a few that punish them . -Benjamin R. Tucker
For certain people, after fifty, litigation takes the place of sex . -Gore Vidal
In civilized life, law floats in a sea of ethics .
-Earl Warren, in the "New York Times "
Laws made by common consent must not be trampled on by individuals .
-George Washington
The Law: It has honored us, may we honor it . -Daniel Webster , a toast at the Charleston Bar Dinner The glorious uncertainty of law . -Thomas Wilbraham , a toast at a dinner of judges and counsel at Serjeants' Inn Hall And he that gives us in these days
New Lords may give us new laws .
-George Wither (Whyther or Withers ( ,
Contented Man's Morrice
And through the heat of conflict keeps the law In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw . -William Wordsworth ,
Character of a Happy Warrior (l. 53
(
He it was that first gave to the law the air of a science. He found it a skeleton, and clothed it with life, colour, and complexion; he embraced the cold statue, and by his
touch it grew into youth, health, and beauty .
-Barry Yelverton, 1st Viscount Avonmore , On Blackstone
Future lawyers should be more aware that law is not a system of abstract logic, but the web of arrangements, rooted in history but also in hopes, for promoting to a maximum
the full use of a nation's resources and talents .
-Justice Felix Frankfurter ,
in an address to the College of the City of New York, September, 30, 1942
We cannot build foundations of a state without rule of
law
.
Mahmoud Abbas
Unless by the lawful judgment of their peers. [Lat., Nisi per legale judicum parum suorum.]
Author: Unattributed Author
Source: Magna Charta--Privilege of Barons of Parliament
Where there are laws, he who has not broken them need not tremble. [It., Ove son leggi, Tremar non dee chi leggi non infranse.]
Author: Vittorio Alfieri Source: Virginia (II, 1)
Law is king of all.
Author: Henry Alford Source: School of the Heart (lesson 6)
Written laws are like spiders' webs, and will like them only entangle and hold the poor and weak, while the rich and powerful will easily break through them.
Author: Anacharsis
Source: to Solon when writing his laws
Author: John Arbuthnot Source: title of a pamphlet (about 1700)
One of the Seven was wont to say: "That laws were like cobwebs; where the small flies were caught, and the great brake through."
Author: Francis Bacon Source: Apothegms (no. 181)
All this is but a web of the wit; it can work nothing.
Author: Francis Bacon Source: Essays on Empire
Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.
Author: Bible Source: Daniel (ch. VI, v. 8)
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the same, and is
set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Author: Bible
Source: Hebrews (ch. XII, v. 1-2)
But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for
manslayers.
Author: Bible
Source: I Timothy (ch. I, v. 8-9)
To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
Author: Bible
Source: Isaiah (ch. VIII, v. 20)
They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.
Author: Bible
Source: Matthew (ch. XXII, v. 21)
He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it.
Author: Bible
Source: Proverbs (ch. XI, v. 15)
Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it
invites anarchy.
Author: Louis D. Brandeis
Source: part of his dissent in the case "Olmstead v. United States", 277 U.S. 438, 485 (1928)
There was an ancient Roman lawyer, of great fame in the history of Roman jurisprudence, whom they called Cui Bono, from his having first introduced into judicial proceedings the
argument, "What end or object could the party have had in the act with which he is accused."
Author: Edmund Burke Source: Impeachment of Warren Hastings
I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against an whole people.
Author: Edmund Burke
Source: Speech on the Conciliation of America
A good parson once said that where mystery begins religion ends. Cannot I say, as truly at least, of human laws, that where mystery begins, justice ends?
Author: Edmund Burke Source: Vindication of Natural Society
Author: Bishop Gilbert Burnet Source: History of His Own Times
Our wrangling lawyers . . . are so litigious and busy here on earth, that I think they will plead their clients' causes hereafter, some of them in hell.
Author: Robert Burton
Source: Anatomy of Melancholy--Democritus to the Reader
Your pettifoggers damn their souls, To share with knaves in cheating fools.
Author: Samuel Butler (1) Source: Hudibras (pt. II, canto I, l. 515)
Is not the winding up witnesses, And nicking, more than half the bus'ness? For witnesses, like watches, go Just as they're set, too fast or slow; And where in Conscience they're
strait-lac'd, 'Tis ten to one that side is cast.
Author: Samuel Butler (1) Source: Hudibras (pt. II, canto II, l. 359)
The law of heaven and earth is life for life.
Author: Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron) Source: The Curse of Minerva (st. 15)
Arms and laws do not flourish together.
Author: Julius Caesar (Caius Julius Caesar) Source: in Plutarch's "Parallel Lives", "Julius Caesar"
No written law has been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.
Author: Carrie Chapman Catt
Source: in a speech at Senate hearing on Woman's suffrage
Who to himself is law, no law doth need, Offends no law, and is a king indeed.
Author: George Chapman Source: Bussy d'Ambois (act II, sc. 1)
I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure -- that is all that agnosticism means.
Author: Clarence Darrow Source: None
This is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice.
Author: Oliver Wendell Source: None
A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.
Author: Robert Frost Source: None
Anarchy - it's not the law, it's just a good idea.
Author: Anonymous Source: None
I feel like a fugitive from the law of averages.
Author: William H Mauldin Source: None
The problem with any unwritten law is that you don't know where to go to erase it.
Author: Glaser and Way Source: None
If it weren't for my lawyer, I'd still be in prison. It went a lot faster with two people digging.
Author: Mister Boffo Source: None
A group of white South Africans recently killed a black lawyer because he was black. That was wrong. They should have killed him because he was a lawyer.
Author: A Whitney Brown Source: None
The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.
Author: Anatole France Source: None
The most overlooked advantage to owning a computer is that if they foul up there's no law against whacking them around a little.
Author: Porterfield Source: None
Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand.
Author: Putt's Law Source: None
The reason there is so little crime in Germany is that it's against the law.
Author: Alex Levin Source: None
For the skeptic there remains only one consolation: if there should be such a thing as superhuman law it is administered with subhuman inefficiency.
Author: Eric Ambler Source: None
The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced.
Author: Frank Zappa Source: None
I have forgotten more law than you ever knew, but allow me to say, I have not forgotten much.
Author: Anon. Source: None
America is a country where, thanks to Congress, there are 40 million laws to enforce 10 commandments.
Author: Anon. Source: None
The law is a strange thing. It makes a man swear to tell the truth, and every time he shows signs of doing so, some lawyer objects.
Author: Anon. Source: None
If you laid all our laws end to end, there would be no end.
Author: Arthur 'bugs' Baer Source: None
Our system is not one of justice, but of law.
Author: Edna Buchanan Source: None
Men would be great criminals did they need as many laws as they break.
Author: Charles John Darling Source: None
The law is above the law, you know.
Author: Dorothy Salisbury Davis Source: None
It takes a long time to learn that a courtroom is the last place in the world for learning the truth.
Author: Alice Koller Source: None
Laws are only felt when the individual comes in conflict with them.
Author: Suzanne La Follette Source: None
Petty laws breed great crimes.
Source: None
Law school taught me one thing: how to take two situations that are exactly the same and show how they are different.
Author: Hart Pomerantz Source: None
The law itself follows gold.
Author: Propertius Source: None
For many persons, law appears to be black magic--an obscure domain that can be fathomed only by the professional initiated into the mysteries.
Author: Susan C. Ross Source: None
The mills of God work like lightning compared with the law.
Author: Mary Stewart Source: None
There is plenty of law at the end of a nightstick.
Author: Grover A. Whalen Source: None
The law must be stable and yet it must not stand still.
Author: Roscoe Pound Source: None
The United States was founded by the violent overthrow of a violently founded throne.
Author: O Anna Niemus Source: None
A law is valuable not because it is law, but because there is right in it.
Author: Henry Ward Beecher Source: None
Litigant: a person about to give up his skin for the hope of retaining his bone.
Author: Ambrose Bierce Source: None
The law is not a "light" for you or any man to see by; the law is not an instrument of any kind. The law is a causeway upon which so long as he keeps to it a citizen may walk safely.
Author: Robert Bolt Source: None
The case has been going on for so long that I've forgotten whether I'm really innocent or guilty.
Author: Ashleigh Brilliant Source: None
An appeal is when ye ask wan court to show its contempt for another court.
Author: Finley Peter Dunne Source: None
The law's made to take care o' raskills.
Author: George Eliot Source: None
How noble the law, in its majestic equality, that both the rich and poor are equally prohibited from peeing in the streets, sleeping under bridges, and stealing bread!
Author: Anatole France Source: None
A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.
Author: Robert Frost Source: None
Law cannot persuade where it cannot punish.
Source: None
The aim of law is the maximum gratification of the nervous system of man.
Author: Learned Hand Source: None
Those who are too lazy and comfortable to think for themselves and be their own judges obey the laws. Others sense their own laws within them.
Author: Herman Hesse Source: None
Laws that do not embody public opinion can never be enforced.
Author: Elbert Hubbard Source: None
We can not expect to breed respect for law and order among people who do not share the fruits of our freedom.
Author: Hubert H. Humphrey Source: None
It is the trade of lawyers to question everything, yield nothing, and to talk by the hour.
Author: Thomas Jefferson Source: None
Every skilled person is to be believed with reference to his own art.
Author: Legal Maxim Source: None
It is not possible to make a bad law. If is is bad, it is not a law.
Author: Carry Nation Source: None
Law is no explanation of anything; law is simply a generalization, a category of facts. Law is neither a cause, nor a reason, nor a power, nor a coercive force. It is nothing but a general
formula, a statistical table.
Author: Florence Nightingale Source: None
Wretches hang that jurymen may dine.
Author: Alexander Pope Source: None
Our very freedom is secure because we're a nation governed by laws, not by men. We cannot as citizens pick and choose the laws we will or will not obey.
Author: Ronals Reagan Source: None
It is criminal to steal a purse, daring to steal a fortune, a mark of greatness to steal a crown. The blame diminishes as the guilt increases.
Author: Friedrich Von Schiller Source: None
Ignorance of the law excuses no man.
Author: John Selden Source: None
It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.
Author: Earl Warren Source: None
Justice Stevens is one of those who are most sensitive to the least powerful in our society.
Author: Senator Paul Simon Source: None
Any law that takes hold of a man's daily life cannot prevail in a community, unless the vast majority of the community are actively in favor of it. The laws that are the most operative
are the laws which protect life.
Author: Henry Ward Beecher Source: None
Those learned in the law, when they do give advice without the usual fee, and in the confidence of friendship, generally say, "Pay, pay anything rather than go to law.".
Author: Isabella Beeton Source: None
No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature.
Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson Source: None
If one man can be allowed to determine for himself what is law, every man can. That means first chaos, then tyranny. Legal process is an essential part of the democratic process.
Author: Felix Frankfurter Source: None
A successful lawsuit is the one worn by the policeman.
Author: Robert Frost Source: None
Where law ends, tyranny begins.
Author: William Pitt Source: None
You can't legislate intelligence and common sense into people.
Author: Will Rogers Source: None
No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man's permission when we ask him to obey it.
Author: Theodore Roosevelt Source: None
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all laws into contempt.
Author: Elizabeth Cady Stanton Source: None
Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies but which let wasps and hornets break through.
Author: Jonathan Swift Source: None
The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the state.
Author: Tacitus Source: None
I can't do literary work for the rest of this year because I'm meditating another lawsuit and looking around for a defendant.
Author: Mark Twain Source: None
I was never ruined but twice: once when I lost a lawsuit and once when I won one.
Author: Voltaire Source: None
When you have no basis for an argument, abuse the plaintiff.
Author: Cicero Source: None
Law and equity are two things which God hath joined, but which man hath put asunder.
Author: Charles Caleb Colton Source: None
The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.
Author: Abraham Lincoln Source: None
Because just as good morals, if they are to be maintained, have need of the laws, so the laws, if they are to be observed, have need of good morals.
Author: Niccolo Machiavelli Source: None
If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made.
Author: Otto Von Bismarck Source: None
Edward Abbey, quotes about Law:
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.
more Edward Abbey quotes
John Adams, quotes about Law:
no good government but what is republican... the very definition of a republic is 'an empire of laws, and not of men.'
more John Adams quotes
John Adams, quotes about Law:
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
more John Adams quotes
John Adams, quotes about Law:
The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.
more John Adams quotes
John Adams, quotes about Law:
If Aristotle, Livy, and Harrington knew what a republic was, the British constitution is much more like a republic than an empire. They define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men. If this definition is just, the British constitution is nothing more or less than a republic, in which the king is first magistrate. This office being hereditary, and being possessed of such ample and splendid prerogatives, is no objection to the government's being a republic, as long as it is bound by fixed laws, which the people have a voice in making, and a right to defend.
more John Adams quotes
John Quincy Adams, quotes about Law:
The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy.
more John Quincy Adams quotes
John Quincy Adams, quotes about Law:
Law logic -- an artificial system of reasoning, exclusively used in courts of justice, but good for nothing anywhere else.
more John Quincy Adams quotes
John Quincy Adams, quotes about Law:
All the public business in Congress now connects itself with intrigues, and there is great danger that the whole government will degenerate into a struggle of cabals.
more John Quincy Adams quotes
Samuel Adams, quotes about Law:
Were the talents and virtues which heaven has bestowed on men given merely to make them more obedient drudges, to be sacrificed to the follies and ambition of a few? Or, were not the noble gifts so equally dispensed with a divine purpose and law, that they should as nearly as possible be equally exerted, and the blessings of Providence be equally enjoyed by all?
more Samuel Adams quotes
The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.
more Samuel Adams quotes
Samuel Adams, quotes about Law:
If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of Almighty God, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.
more Samuel Adams quotes
American Bar Association, quotes about Law:
It is the duty of the officials to prevent or suppress the threatened disorder with a firm hand instead of timidly yielding to threats…. Surely a speaker ought not to be suppressed because his opponents propose to use violence. It is they who should suffer from their lawlessness, not he. more American Bar Association quotes
American Bar Association, quotes about Law:
I shall not counsel or maintain any suit or proceeding which shall appear to me to be unjust, nor any defense except such as I believe to be honestly debatable under the law of the land.
more American Bar Association quotes
Henri-Frédéric Amiel, quotes about Law:
The test of every religious, political, or educational system is the man that it forms.
more Henri-Frédéric Amiel quotes
Susan B. Anthony, quotes about Law:
It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. more Susan B. Anthony quotes
Aristotle, quotes about Law:
It makes no difference whether a good man has defrauded a bad man, or a bad man defrauded a good man, or whether a good or bad man has committed adultery: the law can look only to the amount of damage done. more Aristotle quotes
Thurman Arnold, quotes about Law:
It is a part of the function of “law” to give recognition to ideas representing the exact opposite of established conduct. Most of the complications arise from the necessity of pretending to do one thing, while actually doing another.
more Thurman Arnold quotes
Thurman Arnold, quotes about Law:
The spectacle of a judge pouring over the picture of some nude, trying to ascertain the extent to which she arouses prurient interests, and then attempting to write an opinion which explains the difference between that nude and some other nude has elements of low comedy.
more Thurman Arnold quotes
Lawrence Auster, quotes about Law:
no limit to the needs that will be claimed as a basic right. more Lawrence Auster quotes
Dwight E. Avis, quotes about Law:
Let me point this out now. Your income tax is 100 percent voluntary tax, and your liquor tax is 100 percent enforced tax. Now, the situation is as different as night and day. Consequently, your same rules just will not apply...
more Dwight E. Avis quotes
Sir Francis Bacon, quotes about Law:
One of the Seven [wise men of Greece] was wont to say: That laws were like cobwebs, where the small flies are caught and the great break through.
more Sir Francis Bacon quotes
Sir Francis Bacon, quotes about Law:
A just fear of an imminent danger, though there be no blow given, is a lawful cause of war.
more Sir Francis Bacon quotes
Mayor Marion Barry, quotes about Law:
What right does Congress have to go around making laws just because they deem it necessary?
more Mayor Marion Barry quotes
Frederic Bastiat, quotes about Law:
When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law.
more Frederic Bastiat quotes
Frederic Bastiat, quotes about Law:
Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Thus the beneficiaries are spared the shame and danger that their acts would otherwise involve... But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them and gives it to the other persons to whom it doesn't belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish that law without delay ... No legal plunder; this is the principle of justice, peace, order, stability, harmony and logic.
more Frederic Bastiat quotes
Frederic Bastiat, quotes about Law:
There is in all of us a strong disposition to believe that anything lawful is also legitimate. This belief is so widespread that many persons have erroneously held that things are “just” because the law makes them so. more Frederic Bastiat quotes
Frederic Bastiat, quotes about Law:
Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed
beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place. more Frederic Bastiat quotes
Frederic Bastiat, quotes about Law:
No legal plunder: This is the principle of justice, peace, order, stability, harmony, and logic. Until the day of my death, I shall proclaim this principle with all the force of my lungs (which alas! is all too inadequate). more Frederic Bastiat quotes
Dan Baum, quotes about Law:
The country's first drug ban explicitly targeted the opium of "the heathen Chinee." Cocaine was first banned in the south to prevent an uprising of
