Courts of law, and all the paraphernalia and folly of law cannot be found in a rational state of society.
—Robert Owen (1771–1858) British Social Reformer, Philosopher
A good lawyer is a bad neighbor.
—French Proverb
Laws teach us to know when we commit injury and when we suffer it.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect.
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Let but the public mind once become thoroughly corrupt, and all attempts to secure property, liberty, or life, by mere force of laws written on parchment, will be as vain as to put up printed notices in an orchard to keep off canker-worms.
—Horace Mann (1796–1859) American Educator, Politician, Educationalist
We may not all break the Ten Commandments, but we are certainly all capable of it. Within us lurks the breaker of all laws, ready to spring out at the first real opportunity.
—Isadora Duncan (1877–1927) American Dancer, Choreographer
The first thing we do, let’s kill the lawyers.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Law and equity are two things that God hath joined together, but which man has put asunder.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
The law is reason, free from passion.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap—let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;—let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
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
Going to law is losing a cow for the sake of a cat.
—Chinese Proverb
The more corrupt the state, the more laws.
—Tacitus (56–117) Roman Orator, Historian
Laws, like the spider’s web, catch the fly and let the hawk go free.
—Spanish Proverb
If the laws could speak for themselves, they would complain of the lawyers.
—E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax (1881–1959) British Politician, Political leader
He that loves law will soon get his fill of it.
—Scottish Proverb
Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man should always have them to converse with.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
There is no country in the world in which everything can be provided for by the laws, or in which political institutions can prove a substitute for common sense and public morality.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
Our law very often reminds one of those outskirts of cities where you cannot for a long time tell how the streets come to wind about in so capricious and serpent-like a manner. At last it strikes you that they grew up, house by house, on the devious tracks of the old green lanes; and if you follow on to the existing fields, you may often find the change half complete.
—Walter Bagehot (1826–77) English Economist, Journalist
The law of God is what we must do; the gospel is what God will give.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
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
Law is often spoken of as uncertain; but the uncertainty is not so much in the law as in the evidence.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
The only laws of matter are those that our minds must fabricate and the only laws of mind are fabricated for it by matter.
—James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) Scottish Mathematician, Physicist
These written laws are just like spiders’ webs; the small and feeble may be caught and entangled in them, but the rich and mighty force through and despise them.
—Anacharsis (fl. 6th century BCE) Scythian Prince
It is impossible for men even to murder each other without statutes and maxims, and an idea of justice and honor.—War has its laws as well as peace.
—David Hume (1711–76) Scottish Philosopher, Historian
One with the law is a majority.
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American Head of State, Lawyer
Appeal: In law, to put the dice into the box for another throw.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
True law is right reason conformably to nature, universal, unchangeable, eternal, whose commands urge us to duty, and whose prohibitions restrain us from evil.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
It is impossible for us to break the law. We can only break ourselves against the law.
—Cecil B. DeMille (1881–1959) American Film Producer, Director
The laws of probability, so true in general, so fallacious in particular.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
A good, contented, well-breakfasted juryman is a capital thing to get hold of. Discontented jurymen always find for the plaintiff.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
The wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes in the twisting.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Every instance of a man’s suffering the penalty of the law, is an instance of the failure of that penalty in effecting its purpose, which is to deter from transgression.
—Richard Whately (1787–1863) English Philosopher, Theologian
Fish die when they are out of water, and people die without law and order.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
When constabulary duty’s to be done, a policeman’s lot is not a happy one.
—W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) English Dramatist, Librettist, Poet, Illustrator
Fear the law not the judge.
—Russian Proverb
Anybody who thinks talk is cheap should get some legal advice.
—Franklin P. Jones
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
It is unfair to believe everything we hear about lawyers, some of it might not be true.
—Gerald F. Lieberman
Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
To embarrass justice by a multiplicity of laws, or to hazard it by confidence in judges, are the opposite rocks on which all civil institutions have been wrecked, and between which legislative wisdom has never yet found an open passage.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The laws keep up their credit, not because they are all just, but because they are laws. This is the mystical foundation of their authority.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
The clearest way to show what the rule of law means to us in everyday life is to recall what has happened when there is no rule of law.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
The law is past depth to those who, without heed, do plunge into it.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
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.
—Philip Sidney (1554–86) English Soldier Poet, Courtier
A judge is a law student who grades his own papers.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
Where there is no law there is no transgression.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith