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Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.5 quotes
It is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that so it was laid down in the time of Henry IV. It is still more revolting if the grounds upon which it was laid down have vanished long since, and the rule simply persists from blind imitation of the past. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1897The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1880The 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. · 1880General 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. · 1905The 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. · 1919William Blackstone4 quotes
The king, moreover, is not only incapable of doing wrong, but even of thinking wrong: he can never mean to do an improper thing: in him is no folly or weakness. — William Blackstone · 1765Whence it is that in our law the goodness of a custom depends upon its having been used time out of mind; or, in the solemnity of our legal phrase, time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary. — William Blackstone · 1765All 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 · 1769That the king can do no wrong, is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution. — William Blackstone · 1765Alexander Hamilton3 quotes
The interpretation of the laws is the proper and peculiar province of the courts. — Alexander Hamilton · 1788A constitution is, in fact, and must be regarded by the judges, as a fundamental law. It therefore belongs to them to ascertain its meaning, as well as the meaning of any particular act proceeding from the legislative body. If there should happen to be an irreconcilable variance between the two, that which has the superior obligation and validity ought, of course, to be preferred; or, in other words, the Constitution ought to be preferred to the statute, the intention of the people to the intention of their agents. — Alexander Hamilton · 1788Government 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 · 1787Publilius Syrus3 quotes
The judge is condemned when the guilty party is acquitted. — Publilius Syrus · 43 BCNo one should be judge in his own case. — Publilius Syrus · 43 BCPardon one offense, and you encourage the commission of many. — Publilius Syrus · 43 BCEdward Coke2 quotes
The house of everyone is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence, as for his repose — Edward Coke · 1603They cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed, nor excommunicate, for they have no souls. — Edward Coke · 1658Elizabeth Fry2 quotes
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 · 1848Punishment is not for revenge, but to lessen crime and reform the criminal. — Elizabeth Fry · 1848A.P. Herbert1 quote
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 · 1935Abraham Lincoln1 quote
The intention of the lawgiver is the law. — Abraham Lincoln · 1861Adam Smith1 quote
Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent. — Adam Smith · 1759Apostle Paul1 quote
Where there is no law there is no transgression. — Apostle Paul · 56Aristotle1 quote
Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered. — Aristotle · 350 BCBenjamin Hoadly1 quote
Whoever hath an absolute authority to interpret any written, or spoken laws; it is He, who is truly the Law-giver to all intents and purposes, and not the Person who first wrote, or spoke them. — Benjamin Hoadly · 1717Charles Evans Hughes1 quote
We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is. — Charles Evans Hughes · 1907Cicero1 quote
Laws are silent in time of war. — Cicero · 52 BCEdmund Burke1 quote
Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny. — Edmund Burke · 1780Edward Gibbon1 quote
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 · 1776George Orwell1 quote
The relative freedom which we enjoy depends of public opinion. The law is no protection. Governments make laws, but whether they are carried out, and how the police behave, depends on the general temper in the country. If large numbers of people are interested in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it; if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them. — George Orwell · 1945George Savile, Lord Halifax1 quote
Men are not hanged for stealing horses, but that horses may not be stolen. — George Savile, Lord Halifax · 1750Gordon Hewart1 quote
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 · 1924Henry Billings Brown1 quote
Legislation is powerless to eradicate racial instincts or to abolish distinctions based upon physical differences, and the attempt to do so can only result in accentuating the difficulties of the present situation. — Henry Billings Brown · 1896Henry Peter Brougham1 quote
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 · 1820James K. Polk1 quote
One great object of the Constitution was to restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon their just rights. Minorities have a right to appeal to the Constitution as a shield against such oppression. — James K. Polk · 1845James Madison1 quote
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 · 1788John Galsworthy1 quote
Public opinion's always in advance of the law. — John Galsworthy · 1922John Marshall1 quote
It is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is... If two laws conflict with each other, the Courts must decide on the operation of each... This is of the very essence of judicial duty. — John Marshall · 1803John Marshall Harlan1 quote
Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. — John Marshall Harlan · 1896John Milton1 quote
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 · 1644John Selden1 quote
Ignorance of the law excuses no man; not that all men know the law, but because 'tis an excuse every man will plead, and no man can tell how to confute him. — John Selden · 1689Louis Brandeis1 quote
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 · 1932Mark Twain1 quote
Laws are sand, customs are rock. Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped, but an openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment. — Mark Twain · 1906