LAW QUOTES II
quotations about law
The plaintiff and defendant in an action at law are two men ducking their heads in a bucket, and daring each other to remain longest under water.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
attributed, Day's Collacon
Laws made by common consent must not be trampled on by individuals.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to Colonel Van Meter, Apr. 27, 1781
So diverse and adverse are the decisions of different high courts, and of the same high court, that in examining cases, as precedents by which to try a suit, the lawyer encounters a perpetual change of cloud and sunshine, and occasionally a real thunder storm, succeeded by a burning sun. What was law at one time, is not law now--what is law in one place, is not in another--locality, individuality, prejudice, and perpetual change, characterize the decisions of judges learned in the law.
LEVI CARROLL JUDSON
The Moral Probe: or, One Hundred and Two Common Sense Essays on the Nature of Men and Things
Laws, like houses, lean on one another.
EDMUND BURKE
Tracts Relative to the Laws Against Popery in Ireland
It's a strange thing, we think that law brings order. Law doesn't. How do we know that law does not bring order? Look around us. We live under the rule of law. Notice how much order we have?
HOWARD ZINN
Voices of a People's History of the United States
The final test of civilization of a people is the respect they have for law.
LEWIS F. KORNS
Thoughts
Law is the rudder of the ship of state.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
It is wrong to consider that courts are established for the benefit of the people. Those who want to perpetuate their power do so through the courts. If people were to settle their own quarrels, a third party would not be able to exercise any authority over them. Truly, men were less unmanly when they settled their disputes either by fighting or by asking their relatives to decide for them. They became more unmanly and cowardly when they resorted to the courts of law. It was certainly a sign of savagery when they settled their disputes by fighting. Is it any less so, if I ask a third party to decide between you and me? Surely, the decision of a third party is not always right. The parties alone know who is right. We, in our simplicity and ignorance, imagine that a stranger, by taking our money, gives us justice.
MAHATMA GANDHI
Hind Swaraj
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
attributed, King: Pilgrimage to the Mountaintop
Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.
ARISTOTLE
Politics
Law is a bottomless pit.
JOHN ARBUTHNOT
The History of John Bull
I don't go by what the law say. The law's liable to say anything. I go by if it's right or not. It don't matter what the law say. I take and look at it for myself.
AUGUST WILSON
The Piano Lesson
Although I broke a lot of laws as a teenager, I straightened out immediately upon turning eighteen, when I realized the state had a legal right to execute me.
GEORGE CARLIN
Brain Droppings
The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings, capable of laws, where there is no law there is no freedom.
JOHN LOCKE
Second Treatise of Government
When I hear any man talk of an unalterable law, the only effect it produces upon me is to convince me that he is an unalterable fool.
SYDNEY SMITH
Peter Plymley's Letters
Every new time will give its law.
MAXIM GORKY
The New Lawyer's Wit and Wisdom
Ignorance of the law is no good excuse, where every man is bound to take notice of the laws to which he is subject.
THOMAS HOBBES
Leviathan
Who to himself is law, no law doth need,
Offends no law, and is a king indeed.
GEORGE CHAPMAN
Bussy D' Ambois
Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
EDMUND BURKE
speech at Bristol previous to the election of 1780
Courts are places where the ending is written first and all that precedes is simply vaudeville.
CHARLES BUKOWSKI
Notes of a Dirty Old Man