Quotes · Skopia

53 quotes

1848

★ 1.1

A long line of cases shows that it is not merely of some importance, but is of fundamental importance that justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done.

Gordon Hewart

Rex v. Sussex Justices · 1924

★ 1.7

Essay

The Common Law of England has been laboriously built about a mythical figure-the figure of "The Reasonable Man.".... He is an ideal, a standard, the embodiment of all those qualities which we demand of the good citizen.

A.P. Herbert

The Reasonable Man · 1935

★ 1.7

Supreme Court opinion · Legal opinion · Legal writing

The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic... The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Schenck v. United States · 1919

★ 1.8

Speech

The common sense of mankind demands that law shall not stop with the punishment of petty crimes by little people. It must also reach men who posses themselves of great power and make deliberate and concerted use of it to set in motion evils which leave no home in the world untouched.

Robert H. Jackson

1945

★ 1.8

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

1848

★ 1.9

Supreme Court opinion · Legal opinion · Dissenting opinion · Legal writing

General propositions do not decide concrete cases. The decision will depend on a judgement or intuition more subtle than any articulate major premise.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Lochner v. New York · 1905

★ 1.9

Play

Public opinion's always in advance of the law.

John Galsworthy

1922

★ 1.9

Scripture · Religious literature

Where there is no law there is no transgression.

Apostle Paul

Romans 4:15 · 56

★ 1.9

It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.

Voltaire

Zadig · 1747

★ 2.0

Treatise · Legal writing

That the king can do no wrong, is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution.

William Blackstone

Commentaries on the Laws of England · 1765

★ 2.0

Speech · Political speech

Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.

Edmund Burke

Speech at the Bristol Guildhall, September 6, 1780 · 1780

★ 2.0

Essay · Political literature

Government implies the power of making laws. It is essential to the idea of a law, that it be attended with a sanction; or, in other words, a penalty or punishment for disobedience.

Alexander Hamilton

Federalist 15 · 1787

★ 2.0

Essay · Political literature

It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.

James Madison

Federalist 62 · 1788

★ 2.0

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

Mark Twain

1906

★ 2.0

Epigram

Pardon one offense, and you encourage the commission of many.

Publilius Syrus

Sententiae · 43 BC

★ 2.1

Political literature

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 · 1644

★ 2.1

Speech · Political speech

The intention of the lawgiver is the law.

Abraham Lincoln

First Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln · 1861

★ 2.3

Courtroom speech · Speech · Philosophical literature

An advocate, by the sacred duty which he owes his client, knows, in the discharge of that office, but one person in the world, that client and none other. To save that client... Is the highest and most unquestioned of his duties; And he must not regard the alarm, the suffering, the torment, the destruction which he may bring upon any other. Nay... He must go on reckless of the consequences, if his fate, it should unhappily be, to involve his country in confusion for his client's protection.

Henry Peter Brougham

1820

★ 3.5

Supreme Court opinion · Legal opinion · Legal writing

The Court bows to the lessons of experience and the force of better reasoning, recognizing that the process of trial and error, so fruitful in the physical sciences, is appropriate also in the judicial function.

Louis Brandeis

Burnet v. Coronado Oil and Gas Co. · 1932

★ 3.5

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