Law

Explore 71 quotes about Law

The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

The Common Law

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Topic

Legal theory Law

Speaker

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Source

The Common Law

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1880 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. "Lecture 1: Early Forms of Liability." Lowell Lectures. 23 Nov. 1880, Lowell Institute, Lowell, MA, USA.

Current Citation

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. The Common Law. Belknap Press, 2009, lecture 1.

Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feelings of mankind.

Edward Gibbon

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

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Topic

Legal theory Moral theory Law

Author

Edward Gibbon

Source

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1776 1770s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Gibbon, Edward. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Vol. 1, London: Strahan & Cadell, 1776, ch. 14.

Current Citation

Gibbon, Edward. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Volumes 1-6. Vol. 1. Everyman's Library, 2010, ch. 14.

No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way harmed, nor will we go upon him nor will we send upon him, except by the legal judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

Magna Carta

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Topic

Rule of law Law

Source

Magna Carta

Genre

Legal writing

Language

Latin

Time

1215 1210s 13th century

Era

Middle Ages

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Magna Carta Libertatum [Great Charter of Freedoms]. 5 June 1215, clause 39.

Current Citation

Magna Carta, translated by David A. Carpenter. Penguin Classics, 2015, clause 39.

All presumptive evidence of felony should be admitted cautiously; for the law holds, that it is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.

William Blackstone

Commentaries on the Laws of England

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Topic

Presumption of innocence Criminal law Legal theory Law

Author

William Blackstone

Source

Commentaries on the Laws of England

Medium

Treatise

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1769 1760s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Blackstone, William. Commentaries on the Law of England: Book the Fourth. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1769, ch. 27.

Current Citation

Blackstone, William. Commentaries on the Laws of England: Book IV Of Public Wrongs, edited by David Lemmings. Oxford University Press, 2016, ch. 27.

The majestic equality of the law, which forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.

Anatole France

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Topic

Rule of law Law The poor Economic inequality

Speaker

Choulette

Author

Anatole France

Source

The Red Lily

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Irony

Language

French

Time

1894 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

France, Anatole. Le Lys Rouge [The Red Lily]. Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1894, ch. 7.

Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.

Oliver Goldsmith

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Topic

Rich vs. poor Law

Author

Oliver Goldsmith

Source

The Traveller

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1764 1760s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Goldsmith, Oliver. The Traveller; or, a Prospect of Society. London: John Newbery, 1764.

Laws, like houses, lean on one another.

Edmund Burke

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Topic

Law

Author

Edmund Burke

Source

A Tract on the Popery Laws

Genre

Political literature

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1760 1760s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Burke, Edmund. A Tract on the Popery Laws. c. 1760, ch. 3, pt. 1.

Current Citation

Burke, Edmund. "Tract on the Popery Laws." The Portable Edmund Burke, edited by Isaac Kramnick. Penguin, 2009, ch. 3, pt. 1.

The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the benefit of the public.

Samuel Johnson

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Topic

Law

Speaker

Samuel Johnson

Language

English

Time

1784 1780s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Johnson, Samuel. Quoted in Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson, by Hester Lynch Piozzi. London: Thomas Cadell, 1786.

Men are not hanged for stealing horses, but that horses may not be stolen.

George Savile, Lord Halifax

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Topic

Deterrence (theory of punishment) Theory of punishment Criminal law Legal theory Law

Author

George Savile, Lord Halifax

Source

A Character of King Charles II

Language

English

Time

1750 1750s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Savile, George. "Of Punishment." A Character of King Charles The Second and Political, Moral and Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections. London: J. and R. Tonson and S. Draper, 1750.

They cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed, nor excommunicate, for they have no souls.

Edward Coke

On corporations.

More information about this quote

Topic

Corporations Legal theory Law

Author

Edward Coke

Source

The Case of Sutton's Hospital

Language

English

Time

1658 1650s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Coke, Edward. Case of Sutton's Hospital, 10 Rep 32; 77 Eng Rep 960, 973, KB 1612.

The law embodies the story of a nation's development through many centuries, and it cannot be dealt with as if it contained only the axioms and corollaries of a book of mathematics.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

The Common Law

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More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of law Legal theory Law

Speaker

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Source

The Common Law

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1880 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. "Lecture 1: Early Forms of Liability." Lowell Lectures. 23 Nov. 1880, Lowell Institute, Lowell, MA, USA.

Current Citation

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. The Common Law. Belknap Press, 2009, lecture 1.

There are two sorts of laws, those of absolute equity and universality, and the bizarre ones which owe their autonomy only to blindness or to the force of circumstance. The latter merely cover the man who is breaking them with a passing disgrace, which time then transfers to the judges and the nations, on whom it remains forever.

Denis Diderot

More information about this quote

Topic

Natural law Custom and convention Law

Author

Denis Diderot

Source

Rameau's Nephew

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

French

Time

1805 1800s 19th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Diderot, Denis. Le Neveu de Rameau, ou La Satire seconde [The Nephew of Rameau, or the Second Satire]. 1805 (German); 1891 (original French manuscript).

Current Citation

Diderot, Denis. "Rameau's Nephew." Rameau's Nephew and Other Works, translated by Jacques Barzun and Ralph H. Bowen. Hackett Publishing Company, 2001.

The law touches us but here and there, and now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in.

Edmund Burke

More information about this quote

Topic

Custom and convention Law

Author

Edmund Burke

Source

Two Letters to a Member of the Present Parliament, on the Proposals for Peace with the Regicide Directory of France

Medium

Open letter Letter

Language

English

Time

1796 1790s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Burke, Edmund. Two Letters to a Member of the Present Parliament, on the Proposals for Peace with the Regicide Directory of France. London: F. and C. Rivington, 1796, letter 1.

Current Citation

Burke, Edmund. Letters on a Regicide Peace." The Portable Edmund Burke, edited by Isaac Kramnick. Penguin, 2009, letter 1.

There is but one law for all, namely, that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity, — the Law of Nature and of Nations.

Edmund Burke

More information about this quote

Topic

Natural law Law Moral universalism Moral theory Morality

Author

Edmund Burke

Source

Speech in General Reply; First Day: Wednesday May 28, 1794.

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1794 1790s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Burke, Edmund. "Speech in General Reply; First Day: Wednesday, May 28, 1794." Speeches in the Impeachment of Warren Hastings, Esquire. 28 May 1794, Westminster Hall, Westminster, London, UK.

Laws are generally found to be nets of such a texture, as the little creep through, the great break through, and the middle-sized are alone entangled in.

William Shenstone

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of law Law

Author

William Shenstone

Medium

Essay

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1764 1760s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Shenstone, William. "On Politicks." The Works in Verse and Prose of William Shenstone, Esq. Vol. 2, London: R. and J. Dodsley, 1764.

The law is not a "light" for you or any man to see by; the law is not an instrument of any kind. The law is a causeway upon which, so long as he keeps to it, a citizen may walk safely.

Robert Bolt

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Topic

Nature of law Law

Speaker

Sir Thomas More

Author

Robert Bolt

Source

A Man for All Seasons (play)

Medium

Play

Statement Type

Definition Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1960 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Bolt, Robert. A Man for All Seasons. 1 July 1960, Globe Theatre, London, England, UK, act 2.

The Law is the killy-loo bird of the sciences. The killy-loo, of course, was the bird that insisted on flying backward because it didn't care where it was going but was mightily interested in where it had been... Only The Law, inexorably devoted to all its most ancient principles and precedents, makes a vice of innovation and a virtue of hoariness.

Fred Rodell

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of law Law

Author

Fred Rodell

Source

Woe Unto You, Lawyers!

Language

English

Time

1939 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Rodell, Fred. Woe Unto You, Lawyers! Reynal & Hitchcock, 1939, ch. 2.

The intention of the lawgiver is the law.

Abraham Lincoln

First Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln

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Topic

Legal theory Law

Speaker

Abraham Lincoln

Source

First Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1861 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "First Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1861, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

Current Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "First Inaugral Address, March 4, 1861." Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher. Library of America, 2018.

A law that is not just does not seem to me to be a law.

St. Augustine

More information about this quote

Topic

Unjust laws Law

Author

St. Augustine

Source

On Free Choice of the Will

Medium

Essay

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Latin

Time

389 380s 4th century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Augustine. De libero arbitrio voluntatis [On Free Choice of the Will]. c. 389, 1.5.11.33.

Current Citation

Augustine. "On the Free Choice of the Will." Augustine: On the Free Choice of the Will, On Grace and Free Choice, and Other Writings, edited by Peter King. Cambridge University Press, 2010, 1.5.11.33.

Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Ethical Demands for Integration

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Topic

Civil rights Law

Speaker

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Source

The Ethical Demands for Integration

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1962 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

King, Martin Luther, Jr. “The Ethical Demands for Integration.” 27 Dec. 1962, University of Vanderbilt Law School, Nashville, TN, USA.