We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world; and its efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don’t know anything and can’t read.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Society cannot exist without law and order, and cannot advance except through vigorous innovators.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
Every law is an infraction of liberty.
—Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) British Philosopher, Economist
When I hear any man talk of an unalterable law, the only effect it produces on me is to convince me that he is an unalterable fool.
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English Clergyman, Essayist, Wit
Laws gain their authority from actual possession and custom: it is perilous to go back to their origins; laws, like our rivers, get greater and nobler as they roll along: follow them back upstream to their sources and all you find is a tiny spring, hardly recognizable; as time goes by it swells with pride and grows in strength.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
A lawyer is a gentlemen that rescues your estate from your enemies and then keeps it to himself.
—Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778–1868) Scottish Jurist, Politician
I think we may class the lawyer in the natural history of monsters.
—John Keats (1795–1821) English Poet
Even an attorney of moderate talent can postpone doomsday year after year, for the system of appeals that pervades American jurisprudence amounts to a legalistic wheel of fortune, a game of chance, somewhat fixed in the favor of the criminal, that the participants play interminably.
—Truman Capote (1924–84) American Novelist
The decisions of law courts should never be printed: in the long run, they form a counter authority to the law.
—Denis Diderot (1713–84) French Philosopher, Writer
Who thinks the law has anything to do with justice? It’s what we have because we can’t have justice.
—William McIlvanney (1936–2015) Scottish Novelist, Short Story Writer, Poet
Young lawyers attend the courts, not because they have business there, but because they have no business.
—Washington Irving (1783–1859) American Essayist, Biographer, Historian
The power of the lawyer is in the uncertainty of the law.
—Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) British Philosopher, Economist
Law is the embodiment of the moral sentiment of the people.
—William Blackstone (1723–80) English Judge, Jurist, Academic
The laws of each are convertible into the laws of any other.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Laws are never as effective as habits.
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–65) American Diplomat, Politician, Orator
Avoid lawsuits beyond all things; they pervert your conscience, impair your health, and dissipate your property.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
The court is like a palace built of marble—made up of very hard, and very polished materials.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
A fish that hangs in the net, like a poor man’s right in the law, will hardly come out of it.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
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 one too powerful.
—Primo Levi (1919–87) Italian Novelist, Poet, Chemist
Our demands are simple, normal, and therefore they are difficult to satisfy. All we ask is that an actor on the stage live in accordance with natural laws
—Konstantin Stanislavski (1863–1938) Russian Actor, Theater Personality
When violence comes into the house, law and justice leave through the chimney.
—Turkish Proverb
To make an empire durable, the magistrates must obey the laws, and the people the magistrates.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Our human laws are more or less imperfect copies of the external laws as we see them.
—James Anthony Froude (1818–94) British Historian, Novelist, Biographer, Editor
Some laws of state aimed at curbing crime are even more criminal.
—Friedrich Engels (1820–95) German Socialist Political Philosopher
We must not make a scarecrow of the law, setting it up to fear the birds of prey, and letting it keep one shape till custom make it their perch, and not their terror.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
The Jews ruin themselves at their passover; the Moors, at their marriages; and the Christians, in their lawsuits.
—Spanish Proverb
Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man should always have them to converse with.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) American Social Reformer
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