Quotes about laws
126 quotes from 83 people
What is today supported by precedents will hereafter become a precedent.
Tacitus55–120Annals (117), Book XI, 24Lawyer — One who protects us against robbers by taking away the temptation.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)Certain other societies may respect the rule of force — we respect the rule of law.
John F. Kennedy1917–1963Address at Vanderbilt UniversityMen of most renowned virtue have sometimes by transgressing most truly kept the law.
John Milton1608–1674Tetrachordon (1644–1645)The aim of the law is not to punish sins, but is to prevent certain external results.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.1841–1935Commonwealth v. Kennedy, 170 Mass. 18, 20 (1897) (opinion of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts).Only one thing is impossible for God: to find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.
Mark Twain1835–1910Mark Twain’s Notebook (1935), p. 381It seems to me that any law that is not enforced and can’t be enforced weakens all other laws.
Robert A. Heinlein1907–1988Friday (1982), Chapter 23 (p. 241)When laws, customs, or institutions cease to be beneficial to man, they cease to be obligatory.
Henry Ward Beecher1813–1887Life Thoughts (1858), p. 54Knowing that religion does not furnish grosser bigots than law, I expect little from old judges.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Letter to Thomas Cooper (1810)Constitutions are intended to preserve practical and substantial rights, not to maintain theories.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.1841–1935Davis v. Mills, 194 U.S. 451, 457 (1904).
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson (1786), p. 111- Robert A. Heinlein1907–1988Friday (1982), Chapter 24 (p. 257)
Bertolt Brecht1898–1956The Threepenny Opera (1928), Act 3, scene 1 (Peachum)
Rudyard Kipling1865–1936The Second Jungle Book (1895)
Robert H. Jackson1892–1954Douglas v. Jeannette, 319 U.S. 157, 181 (1943)