Law

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Here the great art lies, to discern in what the law is to bid restraint and punishment, and in what things persuasion only is to work.

John Milton

Areopagitica

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Original Citation

Milton, John. Areopagitca; a speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parlament of England. London, 1644.

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Milton, John. "Areopagitica." John Milton: Major Works, edited by Stephen Orgel and Jonathan Goldberg. Oxford University Press, 2008.

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We must not make a scarecrow of the law,
Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,
And let it keep one shape till custom make it
Their perch and not their terror.

William Shakespeare

Measure for Measure

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Shakespeare, William. "Measure for Measure." Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. London: Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard, 1623, act 2, sc. 1.

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Shakespeare, William. "Measure for Measure." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 2, sc. 1.

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There is a written and an unwritten law. The one by which we regulate our constitutions in our cities is the written law; that which arises from custom is the unwritten law.

Diogenes Laërtius

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

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Plato. Quoted in Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, written by Diogenes Laertius. c. 240 AD, bk. 3, sect. 86.

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Plato. Quoted in The Lives of Eminent Philosophers, written by Diogenes Laërtius, translated by Pamela Mensch, edited by James Miller. Oxford University Press, 2018, bk. 3, sect. 86.

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Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.

Edmund Burke

Speech at the Bristol Guildhall, September 6, 1780

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Burke, Edmund. Speech in the Bristol Guildhall. 6 Sept. 1780, Bristol Guildhall, Bristol, England, UK.

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The people must fight in defense of the law as they would for their city wall.

Heraclitus

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Heraclitus. Fragments. 5th century BC, F53 - DK B44.

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Heraclitus. "Heraclitus of Ephesus." The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and Sophists, translated by Robin Waterfield. Oxford University Press, 2009, F53 - DK B44.

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Laws are like Cobwebs, which may catch small Flies, but let Wasps and Hornets break through.

Jonathan Swift

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Swift, Jonathan. A Tritical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind. London: John Morphew, 1711.

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Swift, Jonathan. "A Tritical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind." Parodies, Hoaxes, Mock Treatises: Polite Conversation, Directions Servants and Other Works, edited by Valerie Rumbold. Cambridge University Press, 2013.

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It's a dirty job, enforcing the law; but, it's what we're supposed to be doing, isn't it?

Touch of Evil

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Touch of Evil. Directed by Orson Welles, Universal-International, 1958.

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Every law is contrary to liberty.

Jeremy Bentham

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Bentham, Jeremy, "Principles of the Civil Code." The Works of Jeremy Bentham, edited by John Bowring. Vol. 1, London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1843.

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Laws are sand, customs are rock. Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped, but an openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment.

Mark Twain

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Twain, Mark. The Gorky Incident. 1906.

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Twain, Mark. "The Gorky Incident." Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings, edited by Bernard DeVoto. Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2004.

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Laws were made to be broken.

Christopher North

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North, Christopher. "Noctes Ambrosianae." Blackwood's Magazine, May 1830.

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Wherever a knave is not punished, an honest man is laughed at.

George Savile, Lord Halifax

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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.

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The worst evil of disregard for some law is that it destroys respect for all law.

Herbert Hoover

Inaugural Address of Herbert Hoover

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Hoover, Herbert. "Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1929, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

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Anacharsis laughed at Solon for imagining the dishonesty and covetousness of his countrymen could be restrained by written laws, which were like spiders' webs, and would catch, it is true, the weak and poor, but easily be broken by the mighty and rich.

Plutarch

Plutarch's Lives

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Anacharsis. Quoted in "Solon." Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. c. 120.

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Anacharsis. Quoted in "Solon." Greek Lives, written by Plutarch, translated by Robin Waterfield. Oxford University Press, 2009.

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For you'll ne'er mend your fortunes, nor help the just cause,
By breaking of windows, or breaking of laws.

Hannah More

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More, Hannah. An address to the meeting in Spa Fields. 1817, London, England, UK.

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Law is where you buy it in this town.

Raymond Chandler

Farewell, My Lovely

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Chandler, Raymond. Farewell, My Lovely. Alfred A. Knopf, 1940, ch. 19.

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Whatever government is not a government of laws, is a despotism, let it be called what it may.

Daniel Webster

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Webster, Daniel. "Remarks Made at Reception." 25 Aug. 1835, Bangor, ME, USA.

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Public opinion's always in advance of the law.

John Galsworthy

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Galsworthy, John. Windows. 1922, Royal Court Theatre, London, England, UK, act 1.

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How long soever it hath continued, if it be against reason, it is of no force in law.

Edward Coke

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Coke, Edward. The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England. Or, a Commentarie upon Littleton, Not the Name of a Lawyer Onely, but of the Law it selfe. London: Societe of Stationers, 1628, bk. 1, ch. 10, sect. 80.

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Does capital punishment tend to the security of the people? By no means. It hardens the hearts of men, and makes the loss of life appear light to them; and it renders life insecure, inasmuch as the law holds out that property is of greater value than life.

Elizabeth Fry

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Fry, Elizabeth. Note found among her papers. c. 1848.

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Current Citation

Fry, Elizabeth. Memoir of the Life of Elizabeth Fry, edited by Katharine Fry and Rachel Elizabeth Cresswell. Vol. 1, Cambridge University Press, 2011, ch. 10.

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No written law has ever been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.

Carrie Chapman Catt

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Catt, Carrie Chapman. "Why We Ask for the Submission of an Amendment." U.S. Senate Committee meeting. 13 Feb. 1900, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

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