Quotessence
Home / Topics / Law Quotes

Law Quotes

Browse 12730 quotes about Law.

Related topics

IfsMenPeopleShouldStatesThinkingGovernmentWorldKnowsWayHumansMayOrderJusticeFirstsWantNeedsLaws Of NatureLawyerLibertyCountryBelieveGivingConstitutionDoeHas BeensMadeMoralRightsNaturalMeanWellsFactsCourtNationsPrinciplesEnforcementPersonsYearsScienceRule Of LawForcePoliticalUniverseMindReasonSchoolJudgingLaw EnforcementLongIndividualUseChildrenCitizensWarTwoCrimeKindFormSaidAmericaMatterEndsIdeasTryingActionCasesUnitedBreakEqualHeartImportantWholeSeemsSelfLaw SchoolCommonDonePresidentBookCriminalsLittlesDifferentPhysicsStillsMotherCausesInternationalUnited StatesCertainHandsProtectAuthorityWould BeBodyProblemSocialArtLooksNatural Lawmore

Law Quotes

“And government (to define it de facto, or according to modern prudence) is an art whereby some man, or some few men, subject a city or a nation, and rule it according to his or their private interest; which, because the laws in such cases are made according to the interest of a man, or of some few families, may be said to be the empire of men, and not of laws.”

MenMayArtMadeSaidGovernmentLawNationsInterestCitiesCasesModernSubjectsEmpiresPrudence
Book:Harrington: 'The Commonwealth of Oceana' and 'A System of Politics'
Create image

“All attempts at law, all religion, all ethical norms might be nothing more than attempts by the weak to restrain the strong. Then, within the law, arise the new strong, who subvert the law for their own ends of power and family interest, leaving the old strong outside their circle to pursue the waiting possibilities which they call crime. The weak, the cowardly, the decent ones, live between these groups.”

EndsMightLawStrongWaitingInterestGroupsCrimePossibilityWeakLeavingCirclesArisePursueDecentEthicalNormCowardly
Book:Brute Orbits
Create image

“While in the course of ages the nucleus of social custom inscribed in law has been subjected to but slight and gradual modifications, the other portion has been largely developed in directions indicated by the interests of the dominant classes, and to the injury of the classes they oppress.”

Has BeensAgeLawCoursesSocialInterestClassInjuryCustomsPortionsDominantIn-lawsModificationNucleus
Book:Anarchism: A Collection of Revolutionary Writings
Create image

“In the face of nature's overwhelming forces, humans needed a God who would protect them from harm. When they felt that they had broken the law or committed wrongdoing, people turned to a God who would judge them on the one hand and redeem their sins on the other. In this way, purely from slef-interest, the project of creating God in our own image proceeded--and continues to proceed.”

PeopleWayHumansHandsFacesLawForceFeltInterestSinJudgingBrokenNeededProtectProjectsCreatingCommittedHarmOverwhelmingWrongdoingOverwhelming Force
Author:Deepak Chopra
Create image

“That elections of members to serve as representatives of the people, in assembly, ought to be free; and that all men, having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attachment to, the community, have the right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed or deprived of their property for public uses, without their own consent, or that of their representives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not, in like manner, assembled, for the public good.”

PeopleMenUseLawInterestCommunityCommonOughtMembersEvidenceElectionPropertyBoundsPermanentSufficientAttachmentRepresentativesConsentDeprivedAssemblySuffragePublic GoodCommon Interests
Author:George Mason
Create image

“For as long as men and women have talked about war, they have talked about it in terms of right and wrong. And for almost as long, some among them have derided such talk, called it a charade, insisted that war lies beyond (or beneath) moral judgment. War is a world apart, where life itself is at stake, where human nature is reduced to its elemental forms, where self-interest and necessity prevail. Here men and women do what they must to save themselves and their communities, and morality and law have no place. Inter arma silent leges: in time of war the law is silent.”

MenWorldHumansLongWarSelfFormLawLyingTermInterestCommunityMoralHuman NatureMoralityJudgmentMen And WomenSilentStakesSelf InterestElementalsMoral JudgmentCharadesWorlds Apart
Book:Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations
Create image

“However accurate or inaccurate the agency's numbers may be, tax law explicitly presumes that the IRS is always right -- and implicitly presumes that the taxpayer is always wrong -- in any dispute with the government. In many cases, the IRS introduces no evidence whatsoever of its charges; it merely asserts that a taxpayer had a certain amount of unreported income and therefore owes a proportionate amount in taxes, plus interest and penalties.”

MayGovernmentLawCertainInterestJusticeNumbersCasesAmountTaxesEvidenceIncomeAgencyPlusAccurateIntroducingPenaltiesDisputesTaxpayersIrsAlways Wrong
Author:James Bovard
Create image

“I think the reality is that copyright law has for a very long time been a tiny little part of American jurisprudence, far removed from traditional First Amendment jurisprudence, and that made sense before the Internet. Now there is an unavoidable link between First Amendment interests and the scope of copyright law. The legal system is recognizing for the first time the extraordinary expanse of copyright regulation and its regulation of ordinary free-speech activities.”

ThinkingFirstsLittlesLongMadeRealityLawInterestInternetActivitySpeechLong TimeOrdinaryFirst TimeExtraordinaryTinyTraditionalLinksAmendmentsRegulationFree SpeechRecognizingScopeFirst AmendmentCopyrightLegal SystemExpanseJurisprudenceCopyright Law
Author:Lawrence Lessig
Create image

“History affords us many instances of the ruin of states, by the prosecution of measures ill suited to the temper and genius of their people. The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy. ... These measures never fail to create great and violent jealousies and animosities between the people favored and the people oppressed; whence a total separation of affections, interests, political obligations, and all manner of connections, by which the whole state is weakened.”

PeopleStatesWholeLawPoliticalNationsInterestFailingPolicyGeniusConnectionsPrejudiceIllAffectionFavorsSeparationViolentObligationOppressionInstanceRuinsTemperOppressedMistakenAnimosityProsecution
Author:Benjamin Franklin
Create image

“It is not true that a man can believe or disbelieve what he will. But it is certain that an active desire to find any proposition true will unconsciously tend to that result by dismissing importunate suggestions which run counter to the belief, and welcoming those which favor it. The psychological law, that we only see what interests us, and only assimilate what is adapted to our condition, causes the mind to select its evidence.”

MenMindBelieveRunningLawDesireCertainBeliefCausesInterestResultsConditionsEvidenceActiveFavorsPsychologicalWelcomeSuggestionsPropositionsSelectAdaptedImportunate
Book:Problems of Life and Mind
Create image

“The laws of war, that restrain the exercise of national rapine and murder, are founded on two principles of substantial interest: the knowledge of the permanent benefits which may be obtained by a moderate use of conquest, and a just apprehension lest the desolation which we inflict on the enemy's country may be retaliated on our own. But these considerations of hope and fear are almost unknown in the pastoral state of nations.”

MayTwoWarCountryStatesUsePastLawNationsInterestEnemyPrinciplesHistoryExerciseBenefitsMurderPermanentConsiderationConquestModeratesApprehensionRoman EmpireDesolationHopes And Fears
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Create image