If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
Lawyer, n. One skilled in circumvention of the law.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
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
Some laws of state aimed at curbing crime are even more criminal.
—Friedrich Engels (1820–95) German Socialist Political Philosopher
The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage. That is a commonplace truth, but one to which my studies are always bringing me back. It is the central point in my conception. I see it at the end of all my reflections.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
The business of the law is to make sense of the confusion of what we call human life—to reduce it to order but at the same time to give it possibility, scope, even dignity.
—Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982) American Poet, Dramatist
The kind of lawyer you hope the other fellow has.
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) American Novelist
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
Self-defense is the clearest of all laws, and for this reason: lawyers didn’t make it.
—Douglas William Jerrold (1803–57) English Writer, Dramatist, Wit
The robes of lawyers are lined with the obstinacy of clients.
—Common Proverb
The good lawyer is not the man who has an eye to every side and angle of contingency, and qualifies all his qualifications, but who throws himself on your part so heartily, that he can get you out of a scrape.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Stubborn men make lawyers.
—Spanish Proverb
Every actual state is corrupt. Good men must not obey laws too well.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Petty laws breed great crimes.
—Ouida (Maria Louise Rame) (1839–1908) English Novelist
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
Fools and obstinate men make lawyers rich.
—Common 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, Diplomat
The severity of the laws prevents their execution.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
Pettifoggers in law, and empirics in medicine, whether their patients lose or save their property or their lives, take care to be, in either case, equally remunerated; they profit by both horns of the dilemma, and press defeat no less than success into their service. They hold, from time immemorial, the fee simple of a vast estate, subject to no alienation, diminution, revolution, or tax—the folly and ignorance of mankind.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
To some lawyers, all facts are created equal.
—Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) Austrian-Born American Jurist
The law is only one of several imperfect and more or less external ways of defending what is better in life against what is worse. By itself, the law can never create anything better. Establishing respect for the law does not automatically ensure a better life for that, after all, is a job for people and not for laws and institutions.
—Vaclav Havel (1936–2011) Czech Dramatist, Statesman
He who goes to law for a sheep loses his cow.
—Spanish Proverb
A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.
—Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) English Polymath, Philosopher, Political/Social Theorist
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
Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
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
I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis on the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American Head of State, Lawyer
Scarcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
The trouble with law is lawyers.
—Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American Civil Liberties Lawyer
Lawyers, I suppose, were children once.
—Charles Lamb (1775–1834) British Essayist, Poet
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