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Quotes about laws

126 quotes from 83 people

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Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Civil Disobedience (1849)In context
- Justice
They have no lawyers among them, for they consider them as a sort of people whose profession it is to disguise matters and to wrest the laws, and, therefore, they think it is much better that every man should plead his own cause
Thomas More1478–1535Utopia (1516), Book II (3 of 4)In context
- Clever Jabs
In America the law is king. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.
Thomas Paine1737–1809Common Sense (1776), Part 2In context
- America
- Freedom
America! America!
God mend thine ev’ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.
Katharine Lee Bates1859–1929America the Beautiful (1895)In context
- America
- Liberty
Nor did I deem that thou, a mortal man,
Could’st by a breath annul and override
The immutable unwritten laws of Heaven.
They were not born today nor yesterday;
They die not; and none knoweth whence they sprang.
Sophocles496–406 BCAntigone (c. 441 BC), spoken by AntigoneIn context
- Justice
- Morality
All rights and laws are still transmitted
Like an eternal sickness of the race,⁠—
From generation unto generation fitted,
And shifted round from place to place.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe1749–1832Faust (1808), Scene IV, spoken by MephistophelesIn context
They look upon fraud as a greater crime than theft, and therefore seldom fail to punish it with death; for they allege, that care and vigilance, with a very common understanding, may preserve a man’s goods from thieves, but honesty has no defence against superior cunning
Jonathan Swift1667–1745Gulliver’s Travels (1726), Part I: A Voyage to Lilliput, Chapter VIIn context
- Truth & Lies
Do as adversaries do in law,
Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
William Shakespeare1564–1616The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1591), Act I, Scene II, spoken by TranioIn context
- Enemies
- Friendship
The real significance of crime is in its being a breach of faith with the community of mankind
Joseph Conrad1857–1924Lord Jim (1900), Chapter 14In context
- Justice
Every human institution (justice included) will stretch a little, if you only pull it the right way.
Wilkie Collins1824–1889The Moonstone (1868), First Period: The Loss of the Diamond (1848), Chapter XIIn context
- Justice
Good laws lead to the making of better ones; bad ones bring about worse.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau1712–1778The Social Contract (1762), Book III, Chapter XVIn context
Every law the people has not ratified in person is null and void⁠—is, in fact, not a law.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau1712–1778The Social Contract (1762), Book III, Chapter XVIn context
- Democracy
The inflexibility of the laws, which prevents them from adapting themselves to circumstances, may, in certain cases, render them disastrous, and make them bring about, at a time of crisis, the ruin of the State.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau1712–1778The Social Contract (1762), Book IV, Chapter VIIn context
I believe that to execute a man for murder is to punish him immeasurably more dreadfully than is equivalent to his crime. A murder by sentence is far more dreadful than a murder committed by a criminal.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky1821–1881The Idiot (1869), Part I, Chapter IIIn context
- Justice
The liberal military code makes provision for hanging many kinds of persons, and gentlemen are not excluded.
Ambrose Bierce1842–1914An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1890)In context
- War & Peace