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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Political speech10 quotes
Our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works; our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. — Gerald Ford · 1974Laws are silent in time of war. — Cicero · 52 BCOur constitution is named a democracy, because it is in the hands not of the few but of the many. But our laws secure equal justice for all in their private disputes, and our public opinion welcomes and honors talent in every branch of achievement, not for any sectional reason but on grounds of excellence alone. And as we give free play to all in our public life, so we care the same spirit into our daily relations with one another... Open and friendly in our private intercourse, in our public acts we keep strictly within the control of law. We acknowledge the restraint of authority, and to the laws, more especially to those which offer protection to the oppressed and those unwritten ordinances whose transgression brings admitted shame. — Pericles · 430 BCTo correct the evils, great and small, which spring from want of sympathy and from positive enmity, among strangers, as nations or as individuals, is one of the highest functions of civilization. — Abraham Lincoln · 1859Lynchings must not be tolerated in a great and civilized country like the United States; courts, not mobs, must execute the penalties of the law. — William McKinley · 1897A community where law is the rule of conduct and where courts, not mobs, execute its penalties is the only attractive field for business investments and honest labor. — Benjamin Harrison · 1889All 10 quotes →Political literature7 quotes
To no man will we sell, or deny, or delay, right or justice. — Magna Carta · 1215Where-ever Law ends, Tyranny begins. — John Locke · 1690But where says some is the king of America?...In America the law is king. — Thomas Paine · 1776To abolish the fences of laws between men—as tyranny does—means to take away man's liberties and destroy freedom as a living political reality; for the space between men as it is hedged in by laws, is the living space of freedom. — Hannah Arendt · 1951No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man's permission when we require him to obey it. Obedience to the law is demanded as a right; not asked as a favor. — Theodore Roosevelt · 1903He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. — Thomas Paine · 1795All 7 quotes →Legal writing6 quotes
The government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men. — John Marshall · 1803The history of liberty has largely been the history of observance of procedural safeguards. — Felix Frankfurter · 1943We have long since made clear that a state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to the rights of the Nation's citizens. — Sandra Day O'Connor · 2004No 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 · 1215When urgent considerations of the public safety require compromise with the normal principles constraining law enforcement, the normal principles may have to bend. The Constitution is not a suicide pact. — Richard Posner · 1999Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law. — John Paul Stevens · 2000Crime drama2 quotes
A policeman's job is only easy in a police state. That's the whole point, Captain. Who's the boss, the cop or the law? — Mike Vargas · 1958It's a dirty job, enforcing the law; but, it's what we're supposed to be doing, isn't it? — Mike Vargas · 1958Crime drama (film)2 quotes
A policeman's job is only easy in a police state. That's the whole point, Captain. Who's the boss, the cop or the law? — Mike Vargas · 1958It's a dirty job, enforcing the law; but, it's what we're supposed to be doing, isn't it? — Mike Vargas · 1958Film noir2 quotes
A policeman's job is only easy in a police state. That's the whole point, Captain. Who's the boss, the cop or the law? — Mike Vargas · 1958It's a dirty job, enforcing the law; but, it's what we're supposed to be doing, isn't it? — Mike Vargas · 1958Western2 quotes
I know those law books mean a lot to you, but not out here. Out here a man settles his own problems. — Tom Doniphon · 1962People gotta talk themselves into law and order before they do anything about it. Maybe because down deep they don't care. They just don't care. — Martin Howe · 1952Western (film)2 quotes
I know those law books mean a lot to you, but not out here. Out here a man settles his own problems. — Tom Doniphon · 1962People gotta talk themselves into law and order before they do anything about it. Maybe because down deep they don't care. They just don't care. — Martin Howe · 1952Comedy1 quote
Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about the rules? Mark it zero! — Walter Sobchak · 1998Comedy (film)1 quote
Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about the rules? Mark it zero! — Walter Sobchak · 1998Crime comedy1 quote
Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about the rules? Mark it zero! — Walter Sobchak · 1998Crime comedy (film)1 quote
Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about the rules? Mark it zero! — Walter Sobchak · 1998Dissenting opinion1 quote
Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law. — John Paul Stevens · 2000Historical literature1 quote
Our constitution is named a democracy, because it is in the hands not of the few but of the many. But our laws secure equal justice for all in their private disputes, and our public opinion welcomes and honors talent in every branch of achievement, not for any sectional reason but on grounds of excellence alone. And as we give free play to all in our public life, so we care the same spirit into our daily relations with one another... Open and friendly in our private intercourse, in our public acts we keep strictly within the control of law. We acknowledge the restraint of authority, and to the laws, more especially to those which offer protection to the oppressed and those unwritten ordinances whose transgression brings admitted shame. — Pericles · 430 BCPhilosophical literature1 quote
The people must fight in defense of the law as they would for their city wall. — HeraclitusReligious literature1 quote
In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. — Judges 17:6 · 1385 BCSatire1 quote
For who can be secure of private right,
If sovereign sway may be dissolved by might?
Nor is the people's judgement always true:
The most may err as grossly as the few. — John Dryden · 1681