Law Quotes - Page 2

• Law and justice are not always the same.

  Gloria Steinem

  Equality, Justice, Battered Women

  "Open Secrets : Ninety-four Women in Touch with Our Time". Book by Barbaralee Diamonstein, 1972.

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• There are many pleasant fictions of the law in constant operation, but there is not one so pleasant or practically humorous as that which supposes every man to be of equal value in its impartial eye, and the benefits of all laws to be equally attainable by all men, without the smallest reference to the furniture of their pockets.

  Charles Dickens

  Humorous, Eye, Men

  Charles Dickens (1839). “The life and adventures of Nicholas Nickleby”, p.297

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• It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million of human beings, collected together, are not under the same moral laws which bind each of them separately.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Rights, Together, Morality

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1816-1826”, p.43, Cosimo, Inc.

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• The law was made for one thing alone, for the exploitation of those who don't understand it, or are prevented by naked misery from obeying it.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Naked, Literature, Misery

  Bertolt Brecht (2015). “Brecht Collected Plays: 2: Man Equals Man; Elephant Calf; Threepenny Opera; Mahagonny; Seven Deadly Sins”, p.189, A&C Black

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• The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government.

  Tacitus

  Peace, Freedom, War

  "Annals". Book by Tacitus, Book III, 27,

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• Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence.

  Tom C. Clark

  Government, Libertarian Party, Liberty

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• Every law is an infraction of liberty.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Funny, Humor, Liberty

  1789 An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation.

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• We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.

  Ronald Reagan

  Inspirational, Motivational, Business

  Ronald Reagan's Speech at the Republican National Convention, Platform Committee Meeting, Miami, Florida, July 31, 1968.

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• You cannot make men good by law: and without good men you cannot have a good society.

  C. S. Lewis

  Men, Good Man, Lawyer

  C. S. Lewis (2012). “The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics”, p.71, HarperCollins UK

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• Lawlessness is lawlessness. Anarchy is anarchy is anarchy. Neither race nor color nor frustration is an excuse for either lawlessness or anarchy.

  Thurgood Marshall

  Frustration, Race, Color

  Thurgood Marshall's speech at the National Convention of Alpha Phi Alpha in St. Louis, Missouri (August 15, 1966) as quoted in "St. Louis Globe-Democrat" (p. 1), August 17, 1966.

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• Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Men, Justice, Diversity

  'The Traveller' (1764) l. 386

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• Democracy is not the law of the majority but the protection of the minority.

  Albert Camus

  Democracy, Majority, Minorities

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• An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Motivational, Respect, Kings

  "Letter from Birmingham Jail," 16 Apr. 1963

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• Where there are laws, he who has not broken them need not tremble.

  Vittorio Alfieri

  Broken Heart, Broken, Needs

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, (p. 430), 1922.

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• Upon this law, depend the natural rights of mankind, the supreme being gave existence to man, together with the means of preserving and beatifying that existence. He endowed him with rational faculties, by the help of which, to discern and pursue such things, as were consistent with his duty and interest, and invested him with an inviolable right to personal liberty, and personal safety.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Mean, Men, Rights

  Alexander Hamilton (1842). “The Official and Other Papers of the Late Major-General Alexander Hamilton: Comp. Chiefly from the Originals in the Possession of Mrs. Hamilton ...”, p.76

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• Good and wise men, in all ages, have embraced a very dissimilar theory. They have supposed that the deity, from the relations we stand in to himself and to each other, has constituted an eternal and immutable law, which is indispensably obligatory upon all mankind, prior to any human institution whatever. This is what is called the law of nature....Upon this law depend the natural rights of mankind.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Wise, Men, Rights

  Alexander Hamilton, John Church Hamilton (1850). “The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Miscellanies, 1774-1789: A full vindication; The farmer refuted; Quebec bill; Resolutions in Congress; Letters from Phocion; New-York Legislature, etc”, p.43

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• In the final analysis, true justice is not a matter of courts and law books, but of a commitment in each of us to liberty and mutual respect.

  Jimmy Carter

  Respect, Book, Commitment

  Jimmy Earl Carter “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, Jimmy Carter, 1978, Book 1: January 1 to June 30, 1978”, Government Printing Office

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• 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.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Men, Liberty, Politics

  Frederic Bastiat (2006). “The Law”, p.6, Cosimo, Inc.

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• The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Government, Justice, Way

  Abraham Lincoln (1999). “The Wit & Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln: A Treasury of Quotations, Anecdotes, and Observations”, Gramercy

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• That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Change, Time

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• All the mathematical sciences are founded on relations between physical laws and laws of numbers.

  James Clerk Maxwell

  Education, Math, Numbers

  "The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell".

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• It would be better to have no laws at all, than to have too many.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Inspirational, Motivational, Would Be

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• Unless we establish some form of world government, it will not be possible for us to avert a World War III in the future.

  Winston Churchill

  War, World Government, Form

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• 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

  Needs, Politics, Moral

  "Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius". Book by Niccolò Machiavelli, trans. Allan Gilbert, book 1, chapter 18, p. 241, 1965.

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• You cannot make men good by law.

  C. S. Lewis

  Men

  C. S. Lewis (2012). “The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics”, p.71, HarperCollins UK

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