An aphorism is nothing else but the slightest
form of writing raised to the highest level of expressive communication. Carl William Brown



60,000 QUOTES SPIDER
 


QUOTES AND APHORISMS ON LAW AND LAWYERS 2

 

 

Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.

 

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956, American editor, author, critic, humorist)

 

All that makes existence valuable to any one depends on the enforcement of restraints upon the actions of other people.

 

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873, British philosopher, economist)

 

It is impossible for us to break the law. We can only break ourselves against the law.

 

Cecil B. De Mille (1881-1959, American film producer and director)

 

Ignorance of the law excuses no man from practicing it.

 

Addison Mizner

 

It would be better to have no laws at all, than to have too many.

 

Michel Eyquem De Montaigne (1533-1592, French philosopher, essayist)

 

The severity of the laws prevents their execution.

 

Charles De Montesquieu (1689-1755, French jurist, political philosopher)

 

The spirit of moderation should also be the spirit of the lawgiver.

 

Charles De Montesquieu (1689-1755, French jurist, political philosopher)

 

There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion.

 

Charles De Montesquieu (1689-1755, French jurist, political philosopher)

 

Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.

 

Charles De Montesquieu (1689-1755, French jurist, political philosopher)

 

I would uphold the law if for no other reason but to protect myself.

 

Thomas Moore (1779-1852, Irish poet)

 

Lawyers -- a profession it is to disguise matters.

 

Thomas More (1478-1535, British chancellor, canonized in 1915)

 

The person taking legal action often gives up an ox to win a cat.

 

Romanian Proverb

 

In cross examination, as in fishing, nothing is more ungainly than a fisherman pulled into the water by his catch.

 

Louis Nizer (1902-1904, British born American lawyer, writer)

 

A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns.

 

Mario Puzo (1920-, American novelist)

 

If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn't it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed, tree surgeons debarked, and dry cleaners depressed.

 

Virginia Ostman

 

Petty laws breed great crimes.

 

Ouida (1838-1908, British writer)

 

Courts of law, and all the paraphernalia and folly of law cannot be found in a rational state of society.

 

Robert Owen

 

Law, without force, is impotent.

 

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662, French scientist, religious philosopher)

 

Law school taught me one thing; how to take two situations that are exactly the same and show how they are different.

 

Hart Pomerantz

 

Curse on all laws but those that love has made.

 

Alexander Pope (1688-1744, British poet, critic, translator)

 

A good lawyer is a bad neighbor.

 

French Proverb (Sayings of French origin)

 

The law is not made for the rich.

 

Maltese Proverb

 

He who goes to law for a sheep loses his cow.

 

Spanish Proverb (Sayings of Spanish origin)

 

It is better to be a mouse in a cat's mouth than a man in a lawyer's hands.

 

Spanish Proverb (Sayings of Spanish origin)

 

Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty.

 

Henry M. Robert

 

It is difficult to make our material condition better by the best law, but it is easy enough to ruin it by bad laws.

 

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919,  American President (26th))

 

Are not laws dangerous which inhibit the passions? Compare the centuries of anarchy with those of the strongest legalism in any country you like and you will see that it is only when the laws are silent that the greatest actions appear.

 

Marquis De Sade (1740-1814, French author)

 

Those laws, being forged for universal application, are in perpetual conflict with personal interest, just as personal interest is always in contradiction with the general interest. Good for society, our laws are very bad for the individuals whereof it is composed; for, if they one time protect the individual, they hinder, trouble, fetter him for three quarters of his life.

 

Marquis De Sade (1740-1814, French author)

 

The law often permits what honor prohibits.

 

Bernard Joseph Saurin (1706-1781, French dramatist)

 

Lawyers enjoy a little mystery, you know. Why, if everybody came forward and told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth straight out, we should all retire to the workhouse.

 

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957, British author)

 

A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect.

 

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832, British novelist, poet)

 

The first thing we do, lets kill the lawyers.

 

William Shakespeare (1564-1616, British poet, playwright, actor)

Source: Henry IV

 

Whenever you wish to do anything against the law, Cicely, always consult a good solicitor first.

 

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950, Irish-born British dramatist)

 

I have spent all my life under a Communist regime, and I will tell you that a society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed. But a society with no other scale but the legal one is not quite worthy of man either.

 

Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-, Russian novelist)

 

Under any conditions, anywhere, whatever you are doing, there is some ordinance under which you can be booked.

 

Robert D. Sprecht

 

Our demands are simple, normal, and therefore they are difficult to satisfy. All we ask is that an actor on the stage live in accordance with natural laws

 

Konstantin Stanislavisky (1863-1968, Russian actor, theatre director, teacher)

 

To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.

 

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902, American social reformer and women's suffrage leader)

 

The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual crime.

 

Max Stirner (1806-1856, German satiric philosopher)

 

I was never ruined but twice; once when I lost a lawsuit and once when I won one.

 

Francois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1778, French historian, writer)

 

I said there was a society of men among us, bred up from their youth in the art of proving by words multiplied for the purpose, that white is black, and black is white, according as they are paid. To this society all the rest of the people are as slaves.

 

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745, Anglo-Irish satirist)

 

Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.

 

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745, Anglo-Irish satirist)

 

The judge is found guilty when a criminal is acquitted.

 

Publilius Syrus (85 BC- 43BC, Roman writer)

 

In a state where corruption abounds, laws must be very numerous.

 

Publius Cornelius Tacitus (55-117, Roman historian)

 

The more corrupt the state, the more laws.

 

Publius Cornelius Tacitus (55-117, Roman historian)

 

Fish die when they are out of water, and people die without law and order.

 

The Talmud (BC 500?-400? AD, Jewish archive of oral tradition)

 

The law is light.

 

The Holy Bible (Sacred scriptures of Christians and Judaism)

 

The law is light.

 

The Holy Bible (Sacred scriptures of Christians and Judaism)

 

Where there is no law there is no transgression.

 

The Holy Bible (Sacred scriptures of Christians and Judaism)

 

I say, break the law.

 

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862, American essayist, poet, naturalist)

 

It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for law, so much as a respect for right.

 

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862, American essayist, poet, naturalist)

 

The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.

 

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862, American essayist, poet, naturalist)

 

Whatever the human law may be, neither an individual nor a nation can commit the least act of injustice against the obscurest individual without having to pay the penalty for it.

 

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862, American essayist, poet, naturalist)

 

Scarcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question.

 

Alexis De Tocqueville (1805-1859, French social philosopher)

 

The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage. That is a commonplace truth, but one to which my studies are always bringing me back. It is the central point in my conception. I see it at the end of all my reflections.

 

Alexis De Tocqueville (1805-1859, French social philosopher)

 

The due process of law as we use it, I believe, rests squarely on the liberal idea of conflict and resolution.

 

June L. Trapp

 

We enact many laws that manufacture criminals, and then a few that punish them

 

Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (1854-1939, American philosophical anarchist)

 

To succeed in the other trades, capacity must be shown; in the law, concealment of it will do.

 

Mark Twain (1835-1910, American humorist, writer)

 

We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world; and its efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don't know anything and can't read.

 

Mark Twain (1835-1910, American humorist, writer)

 

He maintained that the case was lost or won by the time the final juror had been sworn in; his summation was set in his mind before the first witness was called. It was all in the orchestration, he claimed: in knowing how and where to pitch each and every particular argument; who to intimidate; who to trust, who to flatter and court; who to challenge; when to underplay and exactly when to let out all the stops.

 

Dorothy Uhnak

 

Fools and obstinate men make lawyers rich.

 

Author Unknown

 

Law cannot persuade when it cannot punish.

 

Author Unknown

 

Laws are not invented. They grow out of circumstances.

 

Author Unknown

 

Laws teach us to know when we commit injury and when we suffer it.

 

Author Unknown

 

Lawyers and painters can soon make what's black, white.

 

Author Unknown

 

Lawyers and woodpeckers have long bills.

 

Author Unknown

 

Possession is nine tenths of the law.

 

Author Unknown

 

The law helps those who watch, not those who sleep.

 

Author Unknown

 

The more laws the less justice.

 

Author Unknown

 

Where the law is uncertain there is no law.

 

Author Unknown

 

The laws and the stage, both are a form of exhibitionism.

 

Orson Welles (1915-1985, American film maker)

 

Somebody figured it out -- we have 35 million laws trying to enforce Ten Commandments.

 

Earl Wilson (1907-1987, American newspaper columnist)

 

I want to live perfectly above the law, and make it my servant instead of my master.

 

Brigham Young (1801-1877, American Mormon leader)

 

An incompetent attorney can delay a trial for years or months. A competent attorney can delay one even longer.'

 

Evelle Younger

 

 Back to Daimon Library English Quotes Search Page


 

website tracking