Quotes about laws
126 quotes from 83 people
Disarmament without checks is but a shadow — and a community without law is but a shell.
John F. Kennedy1917–1963UN speechThe more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government.
Tacitus55–120Annals (117), Book III, 27Prisons are built with stones of law; brothels with bricks of religion.
William Blake1757–1827Proverbs of Hell, Line 21
John Adams1735–1826Novanglus Essays (1774–1775), No. 7
Sydney Smith1771–1845Peter Plymley’s Letters (1808), Letter IV
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.1841–1935Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616 (1919), 250 U.S. 616; 630.Let us consider the reason of the case. For nothing is law that is not reason.
JPJohn Powell1645–1713Coggs vs. Bernard, Lord Raymond, 911, reported in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Montesquieu1689–1755The Spirit of the Laws (1748), Book XXIX: Of the Manner of Composing Laws, Chapter 16: Things to be Observed in the Composing of Laws
Confucius551–479 BCAnalects, Chapter II
Adlai Stevenson II1900–1965Speech in New York City (28 August 1952)
Edmund Burke1729–1797From the Tracts Relative to the Laws Against Popery in Ireland (c. 1766), not published during Burke’s lifetime.
Robert A. Heinlein1907–1988The Door Into Summer (1957), Chapter 2
Earl Warren1891–1974Speech at the Louis Marshall Award Dinner of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Americana Hotel, New York City (11 November 1962)If civilization is to survive, it must choose the rule of law.
Dwight D. Eisenhower1890–1969Presidential Statement on the Observation of Law Day (30 April 1958)The power to tax is not the power to destroy while this Court sits.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.1841–1935Panhandle Oil Co. v. Mississippi ex rel. Knox, 277 U.S. 233 (1928).