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Law quotes

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“The people should fight for their law as for their city wall.” Heraclitus, “On Nature” - c. 535 – c. 475 BCE

“The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.” William Shakespeare, “Henry VI, Part 2” - 1594

“What is the Law of the Jungle? Strike first and then give tongue.” Rudyard Kipling, “The Jungle Book” - 1894

“White Fang knew the law well: to oppress the weak and obey the strong.” Jack London, “White Fang” - 1906

“More law, less justice.” Marcus Tullius Cicero, “On Duties” - 44 BC

“It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.” Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience” - 1849

“Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.” Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience” - 1849

“Life lived on life. There were the eaters and the eaten. The law was: EAT OR BE EATEN.” Jack London, “White Fang” - 1906

“Facts mean truth, and once we adhere to truth, the law comes to our aid naturally.” Mahatma Gandhi, “The Story of my Experiments with Truth” - 1929

“But we must remember that good laws, if they are not obeyed, do not constitute good government.” Aristotle, “Politics”

“Whereas the law is passionless, passion must ever sway the heart of man.” Aristotle, “Politics”

“We may brave human laws, but we cannot resist natural ones.” Jules Verne, “Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea” - 1870

“Those who lapse from the Gospel to the Law are no better off than those who lapse from grace into idolatry.” Martin Luther, “Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians” - 1535

“Revenge is a kind of wild justice; which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.” Francis Bacon, “The Essays of Francis Bacon” - 1597

“It is precisely because the force of circumstances tends continually to destroy equality that the force of legislation should always tend to its maintenance.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “The Social Contract” - 1762

“Necessity is the mistress and guide of nature. Necessity is the theme and the inventress, the eternal curb and law of nature.” Leonardo da Vinci, “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci” - 1478 – 1519

“No mans error becomes his own Law; nor obliges him to persist in it.” Thomas Hobbes, “Leviathan” - 1651

“There's no way to rule innocent men.” Ayn Rand, “Atlas Shrugged” - 1957

“I had as lief have the foppery of freedom as the morality of imprisonment.” William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure” - 1623

“They said they would rather be outlaws a year in Sherwood Forest than President of the United States forever.” Mark Twain, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” - 1876

“I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest...” Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” - 16 April 1963

“I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.” Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” - 16 April 1963

“The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the Prohibition laws. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.” Albert Einstein, “The world as I see it” - 1949

“Thou hast been with the Monkey People—the gray apes—the people without a law—the eaters of everything.” Rudyard Kipling, “The Jungle Book” - 1894

“But there were other forces at work in the cub, the greatest of which was growth. Instinct and law demanded of him obedience. But growth demanded disobedience.” Jack London, “White Fang” - 1906

“Thus it was that in obedience to the law laid down by his mother, and in obedience to the law of that unknown and nameless thing, fear, he kept away from the mouth of the cave.” Jack London, “White Fang” - 1906

“It is clearly better that property should be private, but the use of it common; and the special business of the legislator is to create in men this benevolent disposition.” Aristotle, “Politics”

“It was as if she had been made afresh, out of new elements, and must perforce be permitted to live her own life, and be a law unto herself, without her eccentricities being reckoned to her for a crime.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Scarlet Letter” - 1850

“I have done with society entirely, for reasons which I alone have the right of appreciating. I do not, therefore, obey its laws, and I desire you never to allude to them before me again!” Jules Verne, “Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea” - 1870

“The true American knew something of the facts, but nothing of the feelings; he read the letter, but he never felt the law.” Henry Adams, “The Education of Henry Adams” - 1906

“The Law has a promise but it is a conditional promise, depending upon whether people fulfill the Law.” Martin Luther, “Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians” - 1535

“To mix Law and Gospel not only clouds the knowledge of grace, it cuts out Christ altogether.” Martin Luther, “Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians” - 1535

“Many a law, many a commandment have I broken, but my word never.” Walter Scott, “Ivanhoe” - 1820

“The French codes are often difficult of comprehension, but they can be read by every one; nothing, on the other hand, can be more impenetrable to the uninitiated than a legislation founded upon precedents.” Alexis de Tocqueville, “Democracy in America” - 1835

“Our founding fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up...” Barack Obama, “Inaugural Address” - 20 January 2009

“Thus from the four preceding articles, the definition of law may be gathered; and it is nothing else than an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community, and promulgated.” Thomas Aquinas, “Summa Theologica” - 1274

“Shalt thou give law to God? shalt thou dispute with him the points of liberty, who made thee what thou art, and formed the Powers of Heaven such as he pleased, and circumscribed their being?” John Milton, “Paradise Lost” - 1667

“By the time humankind reaches the stage of writing its mythology and laws, patriarchy is definitively established: it is males who write the codes.” Simone de Beauvoir, “The Second Sex” - 1949

“The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms; and as there cannot be good laws where the state is not well armed, it follows that where they are well armed they have good laws.” Niccolò Machiavelli, “The Prince” - 1532

“We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was 'legal' and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was 'illegal.'” Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” - 16 April 1963

“The first branch, of which Rule, containeth the first, and Fundamentall Law of Nature; which is, 'To seek Peace, and follow it.'” Thomas Hobbes, “Leviathan” - 1651

Related topics

justice nature obedience freedom fight man respect eating government gospel code passion responsibility strength life conscience reason truth fear God

Related authors

Jack London (4)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (3)
Aristotle (3)
Martin Luther (3)
William Shakespeare (2)
Henry David Thoreau (2)
Rudyard Kipling (2)
Jules Verne (2)
Thomas Hobbes (2)
Mark Twain (1)
Heraclitus (1)
Albert Einstein (1)
Ayn Rand (1)
Mahatma Gandhi (1)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1)
Henry Adams (1)
Francis Bacon (1)
Walter Scott (1)
Alexis de Tocqueville (1)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1)

Related sources

White Fang (4)
Letter from a Birmingham Jail (3)
Politics (3)
Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (3)
Civil Disobedience (2)
The Jungle Book (2)
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (2)
Leviathan (2)
Henry VI, Part 2 (1)
Measure for Measure (1)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1)
On Nature (1)
The world as I see it (1)
The Story of my Experiments with Truth (1)
The Scarlet Letter (1)
The Education of Henry Adams (1)
The Essays of Francis Bacon (1)
Ivanhoe (1)
Democracy in America (1)
The Social Contract (1)