What man […] believes the law can hurt him; that is, words and paper, without hands and swords of men?

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) English philosopher

Leviathan, Part 4, ch. 46 (1651)
    (Source)

Countering the argument in Aristotle's Politics, which asserts that laws should govern, not men.

Often attributed to John Harrington, who quoted Hobbes in his The Commonwealth of Oceana, Part 1 (1656).