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Law Quotes

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Law Quotes

“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

“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

“If I had forty wives in the United States, they did not know it, and could not substantiate it, neither did I ask any lawyer, judge, or magistrate for them. I live above the law, and so do this people.”

People Ifs Knows States Law Asks United United States Wife Judging Lawyer Forty Polygamy Magistrates Above The Law

Book:Journal of Discourses

Source: Journal of Discourses

“Our magistrates discharge their duties best at the beginning; and fall off toward the end. [Lat., Initia magistratuum nostrorum meliora, ferme finis inclinat.]”

Ends Law Fall Duty Discharge Magistrates

Author:Tacitus

“If all were perfect Christians, individuals would do their duty; the people would be obedient to the laws, the magistrates incorrupt, and there would be neither vanity nor luxury in such a state.”

People Ifs States Would Be Christian Law Individual Perfect Duty Luxury Vanity Obedient Magistrates

Author:Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“For as the law is set over the magistrate, even so are the magistrates set over the people. And therefore, it may be truly said, "that the magistrate is a speaking law, and the law is a silent magistrate.”

People May Said Law Silent Magistrates

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Cicero (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Cicero (Illustrated)

“Timid and cowardly soldiers cause the loss of a nation's independence; but pusillanimous magistrates destroy the empire of the laws, the rights of the throne, and even social order itself.”

Law Order Nations Social Causes Loss Rights Independence Soldier Empires Thrones Cowardly Social Order Magistrates

Author:Napoleon Bonaparte

“During the games of the Circus, he had, imprudently or designedly, performed the manumission of a slave in the presence of the consul. The moment he was reminded that he had trespassed on the jurisdiction of another magistrate, he condemned himself to pay a fine of ten pounds of gold, and embraced this public occasion of declaring to the world that he was subject, like the rest of his fellow-citizens, to the laws, and even to the forms, of the republic.”

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Edited in Seven Volumes with Introduction, Notes, Appendices, and Index

“The laws are, and ought to be, relative to the constitution, and not the constitution to the laws. A constitution is the organization of offices in a state, and determines what is to be the governing body, and what is the end of each community. But laws are not to be confounded with the principles of the constitution; they are the rules according to which the magistrates should administer the state, and proceed against offenders.”

Should Ends States Body Law Community Principles Ought Office Organization Constitution Determine Relative Governing Offenders Magistrates

Book:Aristotle

Source: Aristotle

“Once more: there are three offices according to whose directions the highest magistrates are chosen in certain states - guardians of the law, probuli, councilors - of these, the guardians of the law are an aristocratical, the probuli an oligarchical, the council a democratical institution.”

States Government Law Certain Three Office Highest Institutions Chosen Council Guardian Magistrates

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Aristotle (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Aristotle (Illustrated)

“Laws, when good, should be supreme; and that the magistrate or magistrates should regulate those matters only on which the laws are unable to speak with precision owing to the difficulty of any general principle embracing all particulars.”

Should Matter Law Speak Justice Principles Difficulty Supreme Precision Owing Magistrates

Book:Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation

Source: Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation