Laws teach us to know when we commit injury and when we suffer it.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
We are always saying: Let the Law take its Course but what we really mean is: Let the Law take OUR Course.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
The United States is the greatest law factory the world has ever known.
—Charles Evans Hughes (1862–1948) American Judge, Lawyer, Politician
The law isn’t justice. It’s a very imperfect mechanism. If you press exactly the right buttons and are also lucky, justice may show up in the answer. A mechanism is all the law was ever intended to be.
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) American Novelist
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 as to what is truth and equity, they will both agree to unplume themselves that others may be decorated with their feathers.
—Owen Feltham (1602–68) English Essayist
We have no right to say that the universe is governed by natural laws, but only that it is governed according to natural laws.
—William Benjamin Carpenter (1813–85) Biologist and University Administrator
The laws and the stage, both are a form of exhibitionism.
—Orson Welles (1915–85) American Film Director, Actor
The science of legislation is like that of medicine in one respect, viz.: that it is far more easy to point out what will do harm, than what will do good.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
A country survives its legislation. That truth should not comfort the conservative nor depress the radical. For it means that public policy can enlarge its scope and increase its audacity, can try big experiments without trembling too much over the result. This nation could enter upon the most radical experiments and could afford to fail in them.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator
The people’s safety is the law of God.
—James Otis Jr. (1725–83) American Lawyer, Patriot
They are the best laws, by which the king has the greatest prerogative, and the people the best liberty.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Judges ought to be more learned than witty, more reverent than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
The law is reason, free from passion.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
A successful lawsuit is the one worn by a policeman.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
The law discovers the disease. The gospel gives the remedy.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
Ignorance of the law excuses no man from practicing it.
—Addison Mizner (1872–1933) American Architect, Designer
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, Philanthropist
Compared to them I.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
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
No people were ever better than their laws, though many have been worse.
—J. B. Priestley (1894–1984) English Novelist, Playwright, Critic
A law overcharged with severity, like a blunderbuss overcharged with powder, will each of them grow rusty by disuse, and neither will be resorted to, from the shock and recoil that must inevitably follow their explosion.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Aristotle himself has said, speaking of the laws of his own country, that jurisprudence, or the knowledge of those laws, is the principal and most perfect branch of ethics.
—William Blackstone (1723–80) English Judge, Jurist, Academic
The law is past depth to those who, without heed, do plunge into it.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The law helps those who watch, not those who sleep.
—Common Proverb
Who loves law, dies either mad or poor.
—Thomas Middleton (c.1580–1627) English Dramatist, Poet
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
Once victim, always victim—that’s the law.
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English Novelist, Poet
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
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
Lawyers and painters can soon change white to black.
—Danish Proverb
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