Quotessence
Home / Topics / Legal System Quotes

Legal System Quotes

Browse 147 quotes about Legal System.

Related topics

LawPeopleJusticeShouldThinkingIfsNeedsLawyer

Legal System Quotes

“I'm Above The Law (The Sonnet) Yes, I am above the law, So is every single world builder. It's only the apes without brain who, Are tamed by the medieval lawmaker. If you are to be a civilized being, It is your duty to rise above the law. If you can't tell right from wrong, It is common sense you lack, not law. It is nothing but a juvenile democracy, That is founded on spineless law-abidance. Civilized democracy instills accountability, What it doesn't demand is boneheaded obedience. You have a heart, brain and spine, why not use them! Stand up o citizen justice, and keep the law as servant.”

Civil RightsPolitical ScienceLaw And OrderDemocratic SocietyLegal SystemCivic DutyPhilosophy Of LawSocial Justice PoemHuman Rights PoetryLaw Abiding
Book:Himalayan Sonneteer: 100 Sonnets of Unsubmission
Create image

“Law is like a band-aid. Band-aids don't heal the wound, they only prevent further infection while your natural immune system does the healing. Likewise, law doesn't cure crime, it only keeps crime in check, while individual accountability treats the inhumanity that causes crime. And at some point the band-aid must come off, because, just like a body covered in band-aid is the sign of a sick person, a society covered in law is the sign of a sick species.”

Civil RightsLaw EnforcementLaw And OrderCriminal JusticeLegal SystemCivic DutyCriminal LawPhilosophy Of LawCriminologyCrime Prevention
Book:Himalayan Sonneteer: 100 Sonnets of Unsubmission
Create image

“In criminal proceedings, laymen might assume it's one person versus another, but it's not—it's the state versus the defendant. That means that you, the victim, do not have anyone on your side by default, while defendants have lawyers who are eager to tear into you from all angles. You are an asset to the state's case, not the other way around.”

DefenceLegal SystemProsecutionVictims Of CrimeVictim Of Crime
Book:Crash Override: How Gamergate (Nearly) Destroyed My Life, and How We Can Win the Fight Against Online Hate
Create image

“Somewhere along the way, the balance of power between the prosecution, the defense, and the judiciary shifted. We have to readjust it. The stakes are so high—the well-being of so many communities and the trajectories of so many lives. Public safety depends on our collective faith in fairness and our view of the law as legitimate.”

Justice SystemLegal SystemProsecutors
Book:Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration
Create image

“The fundamental basis by which the court’s decision might be made is, in itself, imperfect and subject to contradictions. There is very little consideration given to a priori knowledge regarding the circumstances being presented and as a result, arguments must be made empirically, under the assumption that assumptions themselves are, in fact, likely to give way to specious reasoning...Decisions must be made meticulously and according to specific, yet immeasurable criteria that can only be further manipulated by any cunning lawyer with the ability to make emotional pleas based on a requisite amount of inconsequential evidence to affect a decision beneficial to his clients. And so, in this respect, the law is capable of proving nothing except that its absurd attention to detail is really a kind of a façade meant to cover up the fact that a truly logical and just way to deal with such matters has not yet been devised. And the absence of adequate definition to its principles has given way to a kind of apathy among the men employed by the courts, who want nothing more now than to make a living for themselves and their families and not work themselves into too much of a frenzy about how little can be changed through their own initiative. Thus things aren’t likely to.”

LawCivilizationEvidenceContradictionApathyRule Of LawJustice SystemNatural LawSelf PreservationFacadeLegal SystemPathosInconsequentialA PrioriLegaleseEmpiricalHuman JusticeCivilized GovernanceComforting DelusionsRelevance Of PrinciplesEmotional PleasNon Legal EntityPolite FictionsSpecious Reasoning
Book:Don't Forget to Breathe
Create image

“Our legal system, including the police, is anti-Dalit and anti-poor. The death penalty laws' wrathful majesty, in blood-shot equality, deals the fatal blow on the poor not the rich, the pariah not the brahmin, the black not the white, the underdog not the top dog, the dissenter not the conformist. . . The law barks at all but bites only the poor, the powerless, the illiterate, the ignorant.”

LawBlackWhitePoorDealsRichBloodDogShotsPoliceIncludingBlowIgnorantBitesPenaltiesPowerlessMajestyDeath PenaltyBarkUnderdogIlliterateLegal SystemConformistPariahsBrahmins
Author:V. R. Krishna Iyer
Create image

“It cannot be denied that Islam, regarded as an ethical ideal plus a certain kind of polity - by which expression I mean a social structure regulated by a legal system and animated by a specific ethical ideal - has been the chief formative factor in the life-history of the Muslims of India. It has furnished those basic emotions and loyalties which gradually unify scattered individuals and groups, and finally transform them into a well-defined people, possessing a moral consciousness of their own.”

PeopleWellsKindMeanHas BeensCertainIndividualSocialEmotionConsciousnessMoralGroupsExpressionIdealsIndiaStructureIslamLoyaltyFactorsDefinedChiefsPlusEthicalDeniedAnimatedPossessingLegal SystemSocial Structure
Book:Speeches, Writings, and Statements of Iqbal
Create image

“I have no doubt that if an actual ticking bomb situation were to arise, our law enforcement authorities would torture. The real debate is whether such torture should take place outside of our legal system or within it. The answer to this seems clear: If we are to have torture, it should be authorized by the law.”

IfsShouldRealSeemsLawAnswersSituationClearDoubtAuthorityDebateAriseTortureNo DoubtBombsLaw EnforcementEnforcementLegal System
Author:Alan Dershowitz
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

“As a slave one cannot undertake obligations without the consent of one's master. As a citizen one cannot undertake obligations unless the legal system of the State in which one holds citizenship permits one to do so. Neither a slave nor a citizen is a free person, although those who are held as slaves or citizens may well be free persons: it is just that their freedom is not respected.”

WellsMayPersonsStatesMastersCitizensSlaveObligationPermitConsentCitizenshipLegal System
Author:Frank Van Dun
Create image

“Behaviorism proposes to study human behavior according to the methods developed by animal and infant psychology. It seeks to investigate reflexes and instincts, automatisms and unconscious reactions. But it has told us nothing about the reflexes that have built cathedrals, railroads, and fortresses, the instincts that have produced philosophies, poems, and legal systems, the automatisms that have resulted in the growth and decline of empires, the unconscious reactions that are splitting atoms.”

HumansPhilosophyGrowthAnimalStudyPsychologyBehaviorBuiltMethodInstinctReactionsUnconsciousEmpiresAtomsDeclineHuman BehaviorInfantProposeCathedralsRailroadsReflexesLegal SystemFortressesSplittingBehaviorismSplitting The Atom
Author:Ludwig von Mises
Create image

“In case after case, President Bush's actions have made American women less safe and less secure -- on the job and on the streets. As president, I will put American government and our legal system back on the side of women. I will stand up for their security, ensure their safety, support their rights, and guarantee their dignity. This nation can do no less.”

MadeGovernmentActionJobsNationsSidesPresidentCan DoCasesSupportRightsStreetsSecuritySafeDignitySafetySecureGuaranteesPresident BushAmerican WomanLegal SystemAmerican Government
Author:John F. Kerry
Create image

“Sometimes we forge our own principles and sometimes we accept others' principles, or holistic packages of principles, such as religion and legal systems. While it isn't necessarily a bad thing to use others' principles - it's difficult to come up with your own, and often much wisdom has gone into those already created - adopting pre-packaged principles without much thought exposes you to the risk of inconsistency with your true values.”

LifeSometimesUseValuesDifficultGrowthAcceptingPrinciplesGoneRiskPersonal GrowthInvestingCome UpBad ThingsPackagesHolisticAdoptingInconsistencyLegal SystemTrue Value
Author:Ray Dalio
Create image

“Under theocracies and other authoritarian regimes, the rulers are the moral authorities. Under genuine democracy some basic values are entrenched in the legal system, which is expected to be under democratic vigilance, and others are left to the person or the group, which ideally debate moral problems in a rational, free and cooperative manner.”

PersonsProblemValuesLeftMoralDemocracyGroupsAuthorityDemocraticExpectedDebateGenuineRationalRegimesRulersVigilanceCooperativesLegal SystemTheocracyMoral Authority
Author:Mario Bunge
Create image

“I agree with Peter Drucker that the culture and legal systems of the United Statesare especially favorable to shareholder interests, compared to other interests and compared to most other countries. Indeed, there are many other countries where any good going to public shareholders has a very low priority and almost every other constituency stands higher in line.”

CountryCultureInterestLinesUnitedHigherLowsAgreePrioritiesPeterOther CountriesShareholdersLegal System
Author:Charlie Munger
Create image

“The confidentiality of the judicial process would not matter greatly to an understanding and evaluation of the legal system if the consequences of judicial behavior could be readily determined. If you can determine the ripeness of a cantaloupe by squeezing or smelling it, you don't have to worry about the produce clerk's mental processes.”

IfsMatterProcessUnderstandingWorryProduceBehaviorConsequenceDetermineDeterminedJudicialEvaluationClerksLegal SystemSqueezingRipenessConfidentiality
Author:Richard Posner
Create image

“The legal system we have and the rule of law are far more responsible for our traditional liberties than any system of one man one vote. Any country or Government which wants to proceed towards tyranny starts to undermine legal rights and undermine the law.”

MenWantCountryGovernmentLawLibertyRightsVoteResponsibleTyrannyTraditionalOne ManRule Of LawLegal SystemLegal Rights
Book:As I said to Denis--: the Margaret Thatcher book of quotations
Create image