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Law Quotes

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Law Quotes

“Every law is a contract between the king and the people and therefore to be kept.”

People Law Kings Contracts

Author:John Selden

“I see nothing quite conclusive in the art of temporal government, But violence, duplicity and frequent malversation. King rules or barons rule: The strong man strongly and the weak man by caprice. They have but one law, to seize the power and keep it.”

Men Art Government Law Strong Violence Kings Weak Strong Man Caprice Weak Man Duplicity

Author:Samuel Smiles

“King is a title which translated into several languages, signifies a magistrate with as many different degrees of power as there are kingdoms in the world, and he can have no power but what is given him by law; yea, even the supreme or legislative power is bound by the rules of equity, to govern by laws enacted, and published in due form; for what is not legal is arbitrary.”

World Different Form Law Language Given Kings Degrees Bounds Dues Supreme Kingdoms Titles Equity Arbitrary Magistrates

Book:A Supplement to the Miscellaneous Works of the Late Dr. Arbuthnot

Source: A Supplement to the Miscellaneous Works of the Late Dr. Arbuthnot

“With kings, nations, and private individuals, the strongest assume to themselves rights over the weakest, and the same rule is followed by animals, by matter, by the elements, so that everything is performed in the universe by violence. And that order which we blame with some appearance of justice is the most universal, most absolute, most unchangeable, and most ancient law of nature.”

Source: La Bruyère and Vauvenargues: Selections from the Characters, Reflexions and Maxims

“The 'nations,' as they are called, with whom our pretended ambassadors, secretaries, presidents, and senators profess to make treaties, are as much myths as our own. On general principles of law and reason, there are no such 'nations.' ... Our pretended treaties, then, being made with no legitimate or bona fide nations, or representatives of nations, and being made, on our part, by persons who have no legitimate authority to act for us, have intrinsically no more validity than a pretended treaty made by the Man in the Moon with the king of the Pleiades.”

Source: The collected works of Lysander Spooner

“Law, the king of all mortals and immortals.”

Law Kings Mortals

Author:Pindar

“"Magna Carta is the Law: Let the King look out." So it has always been with tyrants among our own people: when the King was tyrant, let him look out. And it has always been the same, and will be the same, whether the tyrant be the Barons, whether the tyrant be the Church, whether he be demagogue or dictator - let them look out.”

People Looks Law Church Kings Tyrants Dictator Magna Carta

Author:Stanley Baldwin

“It would seem that in Paine's view the code of government should be that of the legendary King Pausole, who prescribed but two laws for his subjects, the first being, Hurt no man, and the second, Then do as you please.”

Men Should Firsts Two Seems Government Law Hurt Views Subjects Kings Please Code Legendary Being Hurt Paine

Author:Albert J. Nock

“There was a state without king or nobles; there was a church without a bishop; there was a people governed by grave magistrates which it had selected, and by equal laws which it had framed.”

People States Law Church Kings Equal Graves Bishops Selected Framed Magistrates

Book:The Works of Rufus Choate, with a Memoir of His Life: Memoir. Lectures and addresses

Source: The Works of Rufus Choate, with a Memoir of His Life: Memoir. Lectures and addresses

“Honour's a sacred tie, the law of kings, The noble mind's distinguishing perfection That aids and strengthens virtue where it meets her And imitates her actions where she is not: It is not to be sported with.”

Mind Action Law Virtue Kings Honor Perfection Sacred Noble Aids Ties Honour

Book:The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, a New Ed., with Notes

Source: The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, a New Ed., with Notes

“Kings that made laws, first broke 'em.”

Firsts Made Law Kings Broke Ems

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Aphra Behn (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Aphra Behn (Illustrated)

“The common law of chattels, that is to say, the law ultimately adopted by the King's courts for the regulation of disputes about the ownership and possession of goods, was, to be a substantial extent, a by-product of that new procedure which had been mainly introduced to perfect the feudal scheme of land law.”

Law Perfect Common Land Products Kings Court Possession Goods Regulation Ownership Schemes Adopted Disputes Procedures Common Law

Book:A Short History of English Law: From the Earliest Times to the End of the Year 1919

Source: A Short History of English Law: From the Earliest Times to the End of the Year 1919

“The orator, who may be silent without danger, may praise without difficulty and without reluctance; and posterity will confess that the character of Theodosius might furnish the subject of a sincere and ample panegyric. The wisdom of his laws and the success of his arms rendered his administration respectable in the eyes both of his subjects and of his enemies. He loved and practised the virtues of domestic life, which seldom hold their residence in the palaces of kings.”

Source: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume II: A.D. 395 to A.D. 1185 (A Modern Library E-Book)

“These, then, are the four kinds of royalty. First the monarchy of the heroic ages; this was exercised over voluntary subjects, but limited to certain functions; the king was a general and a judge, and had the control of religion The second is that of the barbarians, which is a hereditary despotic government in accordance with law. A third is the power of the so-called Aesynmete or Dictator; this is an elective tyranny. The fourth is the Lacedaemonian, which is in fact a generalship, hereditary and perpetual.”

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Aristotle (Illustrated)

“Even if you must have regard to wealth, in order to secure leisure, yet it is surely a bad thing that the greatest offices, such as those of kings and generals, should be bought. The law which allows this abuse makes wealth of more account than virtue, and the whole state becomes avaricious.”

Ifs Should States Whole Law Order Wealth Justice Virtue Kings Office Abuse Accounts Regard Secure Bad Things Leisure

Book:The Essential Aristotle

Source: The Essential Aristotle