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Anacharsis2 quotes
Written laws are like spiders' webs; they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor, but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful. — AnacharsisAnacharsis 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. — Anacharsis · 119Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.2 quotes
The truth is, that the law is always approaching, and never reaching, consistency. It is forever adopting new principles from life at one end, and it always retains old ones from history at the other, which have not yet been absorbed or sloughed off. It will become entirely consistent only when it ceases to grow. — 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. · 1880Fred Rodell1 quote
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 · 1939Jonathan Swift1 quote
Laws are like Cobwebs, which may catch small Flies, but let Wasps and Hornets break through. — Jonathan Swift · 1711Robert Bolt1 quote
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 · 1960Robert Maynard Hutchins1 quote
The law may... Depend on what the judge has had for breakfast. — Robert Maynard Hutchins · 1933St. Thomas Aquinas1 quote
Law: an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community. — St. Thomas Aquinas · 1273William Shenstone1 quote
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 · 1764