God commanundeth us that we shall not kill. And be we then so hastie to kill a man for takinge a little money? And if any man woulde understande killing by this commaundement of God to be forbidden after no larger wise, then mans constitutions define killynge to be lawfull, then whye maye it not lykewise by mans constitutions be determined after what sort of whordome, fornication and perjurie may be lawfull? For whereas, by the permission of God, no man hath power to kil neither himself, nor yet anye other man: then yf a lawe made by the consent of men, concerninge slaughter of men, oughte to be of suche strengthe, force and vertue, that they which contrarie to the commaundement of God have killed those, whom this constitution of man commaunded to be killedy be cleane quite and exempte out of the bondes and daunger of Gods commaundement: shall it not then by this reason folow, that the power of Gods commaundemente shall extende no further, then mans lawe doeth define, and permitte?
[tr. Robynson (1551)]

God has commanded us not to kill, and shall we kill so easiliy for a little Mony? But if one shall say, That by that Law we only forbid to kill any, except when the Laws of the Land allow of it; upon the same Grounds, Laws may be made to allow of Adultery and Perjury in some Cases: for God having taken from us the Right of disposing, either of our own, or ofhter Peoples Lives, if it is pretended that the mutual Consent of Men in making Laws, allowing of Manslaughter in Cases in which God has given us no Example, frees People from the Obligation of the Divine Law, and so makes Murder a lawful Action; What is this, but to give a preference to Humane Laws before the Divine?
[tr. Burnet (1684)]

God hath commanded us not to kill; shall we then kill for a little money? And if it be said, the command extendeth not to cases where the laws of the land allow of killing, on the same ground laws may be made in some cases to allow of perjury and adultery. God having taken from us the right of disposing either of our own lives or those of others, if it be pretended that the mutual consent of makind in framing laws, can authorize death in cases where God hath given us no example, that it supersedeth the obligation of the divine law, and maketh murder lawful, what is this but to prefer human to divine laws?
[tr. Cayley (1808)]

God has commanded us not to kill, and shall we kill so easily for a little money? But if one shall say, that by that law we are only forbid to kill any except when the laws of the land allow of it, upon the same grounds, laws may be made, in some cases, to allow of adultery and perjury: for God having taken from us the right of disposing either of our own or of other people’s lives, if it is pretended that the mutual consent of men in making laws can authorise man-slaughter in cases in which God has given us no example, that it frees people from the obligation of the divine law, and so makes murder a lawful action, what is this, but to give a preference to human laws before the divine?
[tr. Burnet/Morley (1901)]

God commandeth us that we shall not kill. And be we then so hasty to kill a man for taking a little money? And if any man would understand killing by this commandment of God to be forbidden after no larger wise, than man’s constitutions define killing to be lawful, then why may it not likewise by man's constitutions be determined after what sort whoredom, fornication and perjury may be lawful? For whereas, by the permission of God, no man hath power to kill neither himself, nor yet any other man: then if a law made by the consent of men, concerning slaughter of men, ought to be of such strength, force and virtue, that they which, contrary to the commandment of God, have killed those, whom this constitution of man commanded to be killed, be clean quit and exempt out of the bonds and danger of God’s commandment: shall it not then by this reason follow, that the power of God’s commandment shall extend no further than man’s law doth define, and permit?
[tr. Robinson (1909 ed.)]

God has said, "Thou shalt not kill," and shall we so lightly kill a man for taking a little money? But if the divine command be held not to apply where the law of man justifies killing, what prevents men equally from arranging with one another how far adultery, fornication and perjury are admissible? For God forbids a man not only to take the life of another but also his own; but if when men by mutual consent have agreed on definite cases where human life may be taken, their will ought to prevail so far as to exempt from the bonds of His law such of their followers who, without any example set by God, yet take the life of those whom human ordinance has commanded to be put to death, will not thus the law of God be valid only so far as the laws of man permit?
[tr. Richards (1923)]

God said, “Thou shalt not kill" — does the theft of a little money make it quite all right for us to do so? If it’s said that this commandment applies only to illegal killing, what’s to prevent human beings from similarly agreeing among themselves to legalize certain types of rape, adultery, or perjury? Considering that God has forbidden us even to kill ourselves, can we really believe that purely human arrangements for the regulation of mutual slaughter are enough, without any divine authority, to exempt executioners from the sixth commandment? Isn’t that rather like saying that this particular commandment has no more validity than human laws allow it?
[tr. Turner (1965 ed.)]

God has said, “Thou shalt not kill,” and shall we so lightly kill a man for taking a bit of small change? But if the divine command against killing be held not to apply where human law justifies killing, what prevents men equally from arranging with one another how far rape, adultery, and perjury are admissible? God has withdrawn from man the right to take not only another’s life but his own. Now, men by mutual consent agree on definite cases where they may take the life of one another. But if this agreement among men is to have such force as to exempt their henchmen from the obligation of the commandment, although without any precedent set by God they take the life of those who have been ordered by human enactment to be put to death, will not the law of God then be valid only so far as the law of man permits?
[tr. Richards/Surtz (1964)]

Suerlye my lorde, I thinke it not ryght nor justice, that the losse of money should cause the losse of mans life. For myne opinion is, that all the goodes in the worlde are not hable to countervayle mans life. But if they would thus say; that the breakynge of justice, and the transgression of the lawes is recompensed with this punishment, and not the losse of the money, then why maye not this extreme and rigorous justice wel be called plaine injurie? For so cruell govemaunce, so streite rules, and unmercyful lawes be not allowable, that if a small offense be committed, by and by the sword should be drawen: nor so stoical ordinaunces are to be borne withall, as to counte al offenses of suche equalitie, that the killing of a man, or the takyng of his money from him were both a matter, and the one no more heinous offense then the other: betwene the whyche two, yf we have anye respecte to equitie, no similitude or equalitie consisteth.
[tr. Robynson (1551)]

It seems to me a very unjust thing to take away a Man's Life for a little Mony; for notyhing in the World can be of equal value with a Man's Life: and if it is said, that it is not for the Mony that one suffers, but for his breaking the Law; I must say extream Justice is an extream Injury: for we ought not to approve of these terrible Laws that make the smallest Offences capital; nor of that Opinion of the Stoicks that makes all Crimes equal, as if there were no difference to be made between the killing of a Man, and the taking his Purse; between wich if we examine things impartially, there is no likeness nor proportion.
[tr. Burnet (1684)]

It seemeth very unjust to me to take away life for a little money, for nothing can be of equal value with life. And if it be said, that the suffering is not for the money, but for the breach of the law, I answer, extreme justice is an extreme injury. For we ought not to approve of those terrible laws, which make the smallest offences capital, nor of that opinion of the stoics which maketh all crimes equal: as if no difference were to be made between killing a man and taking his purse, between which, in reality, there is the greatest disproportion.
[tr. Cayley (1808)]

Surely my lord, I think it not right nor justice, that the loss of money should cause the loss of man’s life. For mine opinion is, that all the goods in the world are not able to countervail man’s life. But if they would thus say: that the breaking of justice, and the transgression of the laws is recompensed with this punishment, and not the loss of the money, then why may not this extreme justice well be called extreme injury? For neither so cruel governance, so strait rules, and unmerciful laws be allowable, that if a small offence be committed, by-and-by the sword should be drawn: nor so stoical ordinances are to be borne withal, as to count all offences of such equality that the killing of a man, or the taking of his money from him were both a matter, and the one no more heinous offence than the other: between the which two, if we have any respect to equity, no similitude or equality consisteth.
[tr. Robinson (1909 ed.)]

Certainly, right reverend father and my kind lord, I think it quite unjust that a man should lose his life for the loss of money. For in my opinion not all the goods that fortune can bestow on us can be set in the scale against a man's life. But if they say that this penalty is attached to the offence against justice and the breaking of the laws, and not to the theft of money, one may well style this extreme justice as extreme wrong. For we ought not to approve of such stern rules of law as should justify the drawing of the sword, when they are disobeyed in trifles, nor on the other hand such Stoical ordinances as count all offences equal, so that there is no difference whether one kills a man or robs him of a coin, when if equity has any meaning, there is no similarity or connexion between the two cases. God has said, "Thou shalt not kill," and shall we so lightly kill a man for taking a little money?
[tr. Richards (1923)]

Your Grace, it seems to me quite unjust to take a man's life because he's taken some money. To my mind, no amount of property is equivalent to a human life. If it's argued that the punishment is not for taking the money, but for breaking the law and violating justice, isn't this conception of absolute justice absolutely unjust? One really can’t approve of a régime so dictatorial that the slightest disobedience is punishable by death, nor of a legal code based on the Stoic paradox that all offences are equal — so that there’s no distinction in law between theft and murder, though in equity the two things are so completely different.
[tr. Turner (1965 ed.)]

Certainly, most reverend and kind Father, I think it altogether unjust that a man should suffer the loss of his life for the loss of someone’s money. In my opinion, not all the goods that fortune can bestow on us can be set in the scale against a man’s life. If they say that this penalty is attached to the offense against justice and the breaking of the laws, hardly to the money stolen, one may well characterize this extreme justice as extreme wrong. For we ought not to approve such stern Manlian rules of law as would justify the immediate drawing of the sword when they are disobeyed in trifles nor such Stoical ordinances as count all offenses equal so that there is no difference between killing a man and robbing him of a coin when, if equity has any meaning, there is no similarity or connection between the two cases.
[tr. Richards/Surtz (1964)]

It seems to me, most kind and reverend father, that it's altogether unjust to take away a man's life for the loss of someone's money. Nothing in the world that fortune can bestow is equal in value to a man's life. If they say the thief suffers not for the money, but for violation of justice and transgression of laws, then this extreme justice should really be called extreme injury. We ought not to approve of these fierce Manlian laws that invoke the sword for the smallest violations. Neither should we accept the Stoic view that considers all crimes equal, as if there were no difference between killing a man and taking a coin from him. If equity means anything, there is no proportion or relation at all between these two crimes.
[tr. Adams (1992 ed.)]

For it is clear that in a monarchy, where he who commands the execution of the laws generally thinks himself above them, there is less need of virtue than in a popular government, where the person entrusted with the execution of the laws is sensible of his being subject to their direction.
[tr. Nugent (1750)]

For it is clear that less virtue is needed in a monarchy, where the one who sees to the execution of the laws judges himself above the laws, than in a popular government, where the one who sees the execution of the laws feels that he is subject to them himself and that he will bear their weight.
[tr. Cohler/Miller/Stone (1989)]

The bourgeois prefers comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty, and a pleasant temperature to the deathly inner consuming fire.

Now the bourgeois values nothing higher than the ego (an only rudimentarily developed ego, to be sure). Thus at the expense of intensity he achieves preservation and security; instead of divine possession he reaps peace of mind, instead of pleasure, comfort, instead of freedom, convenience, instead of deadly heat a pleasant temperature. The bourgeois is therefor by nature a creature of weak life impulse, anxious, fearful of every expenditure of himself, easy to rule. Therefore he has put the majority in the place of power, in the place of power the law, in the place of accountability the ballot box.
[tr. Wayne (2010)]

For, indeed, what is the civil law? A thing which can neither be bent by influence, nor broken down by power, nor adulterated by corruption.
[tr. Yonge (1856)]

How may we describe it? The law is that which influence cannot bend, nor power break, nor wealth corrupt.
[tr. Grose Hodge (Loeb) (1927)]

Philosophy is odious and obscure:
Both Law and Physicke are for petty wits,
Tis Magicke, Magicke that hath ravisht me.

In a word, a free government, that is to say, one for ever in motion, cannot support itself, unless its own laws are capable of correcting the disorders of it.
[tr. B--- (1734)]

In a word, a free government -- that is to say, one which is constantly agitated -- can never maintain itself if it is not, by its own laws, capable of correction.
[tr. Baker (1882)]

America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till paths be wrought through wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!

On the one hand it is inexorable to the cries and lamentations of the prisoners; on the other it is deaf, deaf as an adder to the clamours of the populace.

Justice insists on obligation, law on decorum. Justice weighs and decides, law superintends and orders. Justice refers to the individual, law to society.
[tr. Saunders (1893), "Life and Character," sec. 1, # 50]

Law deals with guilt, the police with what is fitting. Law considers and decides, the police surveys and commands. Law is concerned with the individual, the police with the community.
[tr. Stopp (1995), #544]

"Law (say they) is the highest reason, implanted in nature, which prescribes those things which ought to be done, and forbids the contrary."
[tr. Barham (1842)]

"Law," say they, "is the highest reason implanted in nature, which prescribes those things which ought to be done, and forbids the contrary."
[tr. Barham/Yonge (1878)]

Law is the highest expression of the system of nature, which ordains what is right and forbids what is wrong.
[ed. Harbottle (1906)]

Law is the highest reason, implanted in Nature, which commends what ought to be done and forbids the opposite.
[tr. Keyes (1928)]

Law is the highest reason, inherent in nature, which enjoins what ought to be done and forbids the opposite.
[tr. Rudd (1998)]

Wherefore as the law is the bond of civil society, and equal rights form that of the law, by what power can a community of citizens be maintained, where their condition is not an equal one? If therefore it is not expedient to equalize fortunes; if the powers of mind cannot be equalized in all, certainly then an equality of rights ought to exist, among those who are citizens of the same republic. For what is a state but a community of rights?
[tr. Featherstonhaugh (1829)]

Wherefore, since the law is the bond of civil society, and the justice of the law equal, by what rule can the association of citizens be held together, if the condition of the citizens be not equal? For if the fortunes of men cannot be reduced to this equality—if genius cannot be equally the property of all—rights, at least, should be equal among those who are citizens of the same republic. For what is a republic but an association of rights?
[tr. Barham (1841)]

Wherefore, since the law is the bond of civil society, and the justice of the law equal, by what rule can the association of citizens be held together, if the condition of the citizens be not equal? For if the fortunes of men cannot be reduced to this equality -- if genius cannot be equally the property of all -- rights, at least, should be equal among those who are citizens of the same republic. For what is a republic but an association of rights?
[tr. Yonge (1853)]

Therefore, since law is the bond which unites the civic association, and the justice enforced by law is the same for all, by what justice can an association of citizens be held together when there is no equality among the citizens? For if we cannot agree to equalize men’s wealth, and equality of innate ability is impossible, the legal rights at least of those who are citizens of the same commonwealth ought to be equal. For what is a State except an association or partnership in justice?
[tr. Keyes (1928)]

Since, then, law is the bond that holds political society together, and since equality of rights is a part of law, by what principle of right can an association of citizens be held together, when the status of these citizens is not equal? For, if it is not thought desirable that property should be equally distributed, and if the natural capacities of all men cannot possibly be equal, yet certainly all who are citizens of the same commonwealth ought to enjoy equal rights in their mutual relations. What, indeed, is a state, if it is not an association of citizens united by law?
[tr. Sabine/Smith (1929)]

Since, then, law is the bond which holds together a community of citizens, and the justice embodied in the law is the same for everyone, by what right can a community of citizens be held together when their status is unequal? If the equalization of wealth is rejected, and the equalization of everybody’s abilities is impossible, legal rights at least must be equal among those who live as fellow-citizens in the same state. For what is a state other than an equal partnership in justice?
[tr. Rudd (1998)]

And therefore, since law is the bond of civil society, and rights under law are equal, then by what right can a society of citizens be held together when the status of citizens is not the same? Even if equality of property is not appealing, and if the mental abilities of all cannot be equal, certainly the rights of all who are citizens of the same commonwealth ought to be equal. What is a state if not the association of citizens under the law?
[tr. Zetzel (1999)]

I've studied now Philosophy
And Jurisprudence, Medicine,
And even, alas! Theology
All through and through with ardour keen!
Here now I stand, poor fool, and see
I'm just as wise as formerly.
[tr. Priest (1808)]

Now I have toil'd thro' all; philosophy,
Law, physic, and theology: alas!
All, all I have explor'd; and here I am
A weak blind fool at last: in wisdom risen
No higher than before.
[tr. Coleridge (1821)]

I have now, alas, by zealous exertion, thoroughly mastered philosophy, the jurist's craft, and medicine -- and to my sorrow, theology too. Here I stand, poor fool that I am, just as wise as before.
[tr. Hayward (1831)]

I have, alas! Philosophy,
Medicine, Jurisprudence too,
And to my cost Theology,
With ardent labour, studied through.
And here I stand, with all my lore,
Poor fool, no wiser than before.
[tr. Swanwick (1850)]

Have now, alas! quite studied through
Philosophy and Medicine,
And Law, and ah! Theology, too,
With hot desire the truth to win!
And here, at last, I stand, poor fool!
As wise as when I entered school
[tr. Brooks (1868)]

I've studied now Philosophy
And Jurisprudence, Medicine, --
And even, alas! Theology, --
From end to end, with labor keen;
And here, poor fool! with all my lore
I stand, no wiser than before:
[tr. Taylor (1870)]

There now, I’ve toiled my way quite through
Law, Medicine, and Philosophy,
And, to my sorrow, also thee,
Theology, with much ado;
And here I stand, poor human fool,
As wise as when I went to school.
[tr. Blackie (1880)]

I have studied, alas! Philosophy,
And Jurisprudence, and Medicine, too,
And saddest of all, Theology,
With arden labor, through and through!
And here I stick, as wise, poor fool,
As when my steps first turned to school.
[tr. Latham (1908)]

I have, alas, studied philosophy,
Jurisprudence and medicine, too,
And, worst of all, theology
With keen endeavor, through and through --
And here I am, for all my lore,
The wretched fool I was before.
[tr. Kaufmann (1961)]

Alas, I have studied philosophy,
the law as well as medicine,
and to my sorrow, theology;
studied them well with ardent zeal,
yet here I am, a wretched fool
no wiser than I was before.
[tr. Salm (1962)]

I have pursued, alas, philosophy,
Jurisprudence, and medicine, And, help me God, theology,
With fervent zeal through thick and thin.
And here, poor fool, I stand once more,
No wiser than I was before.
[tr. Arndt (1976)]

I've studied, alas, philosophy,
Law and medicine, recto and verso,
And how I regret it, theology also,
Oh God, how hard I've slaved away,
With what result? Poor foolish old man,
I'm not whit wiser than when I began!
[tr. Greenberg (1992)]

Medicine, and Law, and Philosophy --
You've worked your way through every school,
Even, God help you, Theology,
And sweated at it like a fool.
Why labour at it any more?
You're no wiser now than you were before.
[tr. Williams (1999)]

Ah! Now I’ve done Philosophy,
I’ve finished Law and Medicine,
And sadly even Theology:
Taken fierce pains, from end to end.
Now here I am, a fool for sure!
No wiser than I was before.
[tr. Kline (2003)]

We have to make good a great deal of the contumely which has fallen on all those who, by their actions, have broken through the conventionality of some custom -- such people generally have been called criminals. Everybody who overthrew the existing moral law has hitherto, at least in the beginning, been considered a wicked man; but when afterwards, as sometimes happened, the old law could not be re-established and had to be abandoned, the epithet was gradually changed. History almost exclusively treats of such wicked men who, in the course of time, have been declared good men.
[tr. Volz (1903)]

One has to take back much of the defamation which people have cast upon all those who broke through the spell of a custom by means of a deed -- in general, they are called criminals. Whoever has overthrown an existing law of custom has hitherto always first been accounted a bad man: but when, as did happen the laws could not afterwards be reinstated and this fact was accepted, the predicate gradually changed -- history treats almost exclusively of these bad men who subsequently became good men!
[tr. Hollingdale (1997)]

I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as a civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.

• "He, therefore, who wishes Law to govern seems to wish for the rule of God and Intellect alone; he who wishes men to rule bring sin the element of the animal. For appetites are of this lower nature, and anger distorts the judgment of rulers, even of the best. And so Law is Intellect without animal impulses." [tr. Bolland (1877)]


• "Moreover, he who would place the supreme power in mind, would place it in God and the laws; but he who entrusts man with it, gives it to a wild beast, for such his appetites sometimes make him; for passion influences those who are in power, even the very best of men: for which reason law is reason without desire." [tr. Ellis (1912)]


• "He therefore that recommends that the law shall govern seems to recommend that God and reason alone shall govern, but he that would have man govern adds a wild animal also; for appetite is like a wild animal, and also passion warps the rule even of the best men. Therefore the law is wisdom without desire." [tr. Rackham (1932)]


• "One who asks law to rule, therefore, is held to be asking god and intellect alone to rule, while one who asks man adds the beast. Desire is a thing of this sort; and spiritedness perverts rulers and the best men. Hence law is intellect without appetite." [tr. Lord (1984)]

• "Nor is it, moreover, right to permit written laws always to remain without alteration; for as in all other sciences, so in politics, it is impossible to express everything in writing with perfect exactness; for when we commit anything to writing we must use general terms, but in every action there is something particular to itself, which these may not comprehend." [tr. Ellis (1912)]
• "Moreover even written codes of law may with advantage not be left unaltered. For just as in the other arts as well, so with the structure of the state it is impossible that it should have been framed aright in all its details; for it must of necessity be couched in general terms, but our actions deal with particular things." [tr. Rackham (1932)]
• "In addition t this, it is not best to leave written laws unchanged. For just as in the case of the other arts, so with respect to political arrangements it is impossible for everything to be written down precisely; for it is necessary to write them in universal fashion, while actions concern particulars." [tr. Lord (1984)]

But another great spring from which injuries arise, is some quirk or cavil, and an oversubtle and malicious interpretation of the laws; from whence that saying, "The height of justice is the height of roguery," is now become a daily and common proverb among us.
[tr. Cockman (1699)]




Injustice is often done by artful evasions, and from a too shrewd, but malicious interpretation of the laws. Hence the proverb, "the strictest justice is the greatest injury," has become quite familiar in conversation.
[tr. McCartney (1798)]




Very often wrongs arise through a quirk, and through a too artful but fraudulent construction of the law. Hence, "the rigour of law is the rigour of injustice," is a saying that has now passed into a proverb.
[tr. Edmonds (1865)]




There are, also, wrongs committed by a sort of chicanery, which consists in a too subtle, and thus fraudulent, interpretation of the right. Hence comes the saying: The extreme of right is the extreme of wrong.
[tr. Peabody (1883)]




A common form of injustice is chicanery, that is, an over-subtle, in fact a fraudulent construction of the law. Hence the hackneyed proverb: "The greatest right is the greatest wrong."
[tr. Gardiner (1899)]




A perversion of justice, some extremely clever but harmful interpretation of a statute, also is a frequent cause of wrongdoing. Hence we have the saying, "Extreme legality is the worst law," a proverb become a cliche by daily use.
[tr. Edinger (1974)]


See Terence. ]]> https://wist.info/cicero-marcus-tullius/43876/feed/ 0 43876 https://wist.info/solon/43820/ https://wist.info/solon/43820/#respond Thu, 22 Oct 2020 18:08:45 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=43820 Good government makes everything well ordered and fit,
And at the same time it throws shackles on the unjust.
It levels out the rough, stops insolence, and weakens arrogance.
It causes the growing blossoms of blindness to wither.
It straightens crooked judgments and it levels out over-reaching deeds.
It stops the acts of civil conflict and
It stops the anger of grievous strife and because of it
Everything among men is wisely and appropriately done.

[Εὐνομίη δ’ εὔκοσμα καὶ ἄρτια πάντ’ ἀποφαίνει,
καὶ θαμὰ τοῖς ἀδίκοις ἀμφιτίθησι πέδας·
τραχέα λειαίνει, παύει κόρον, ὕβριν ἀμαυροῖ,
αὑαίνει δ’ ἄτης ἄνθεα φυόμενα,
εὐθύνει δὲ δίκας σκολιάς, ὑπερήφανά τ’ ἔργα
πραΰνει· παύει δ’ ἔργα διχοστασίης,
παύει δ’ ἀργαλέης ἔριδος χόλον, ἔστι δ’ ὑπ’ αὐτῆς
πάντα κατ’ ἀνθρώπους ἄρτια καὶ πινυτά.]


Solon (c. 638 BC - 558 BC) Athenian statesman, lawmaker, poet
Fragment 4.32-39 W [tr. @sententiq (2015)]
    (Source)

Solon's description of eunomiē (lawfulness). Alt. trans.:

Lawfulness, puts all things into good order and makes them sound,
And often places shackles about those who are unjust.
She smooths what is rough, puts an end to excess, enfeebles arrogance;
She withers the flowers of ruin as they spring up;
She straightens crooked judgments, and overbearing acts she turns to gentleness;
She puts an end to acts of dissension,
Puts an end to the bitterness of painful strife:
Beneath her hand all things among mankind are sound and prudent.
[tr. Miller (1996)]




Good Government displays all neatness and order,
And many times she must put shackles on the breakers of laws
She levels rough places, stops Glut and Greed, takes the force from Violence:
She dries up the growing flowers of Despair as they grow;
She straightens out crooked judgments given, gentles the swollen ambitions,
And puts an end to acts of divisional strife;
She stills the gall of wearisome Hate,
And under her influence all life among mankind is harmonious and does well.
[tr. Lattimore]

]]> https://wist.info/solon/43820/feed/ 0 43820 https://wist.info/cicero-marcus-tullius/43424/ https://wist.info/cicero-marcus-tullius/43424/#respond Mon, 28 Sep 2020 14:34:46 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=43424 For laws are silent when arms are raised.

[Silent enim leges inter arma.]


Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Pro Milone, ch. 4, sec. 11 [tr. Yonge (1891)]
    (Source)

In context, Cicero is asserting that self-defense is a valid defense for killing, even though that principle was not written into Roman law. It has been extended in legal terms to times of war being exempt from normal laws regarding killing.

Alt. trans.:
• "For laws are silent among arms."
• "In a time of war, the law falls silent."
• "Laws are silent in time of war."
• "The laws are silent in warfare."
• "For among arms, the laws fall mute."
• "The power of law is suspended during war."
Original Latin. ]]> https://wist.info/cicero-marcus-tullius/43424/feed/ 0 43424 https://wist.info/benedict-ruth/43383/ https://wist.info/benedict-ruth/43383/#respond Wed, 23 Sep 2020 20:50:58 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=43383 Society is only incidentally and in certain cases regulative, and law is no equivalent to the social order. […] Even in our civilization the law is never more than a crude implement of society, and one it is often enough necessary to check in its arrogant career. It is never to be read off as if it were the equivalent of the social order.

Ruth Benedict (1887-1947) American anthropologist
Patterns of Culture, ch. 8 “The Individual and Culture” (1934)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/benedict-ruth/43383/feed/ 0 43383 https://wist.info/maitland-frederic/42690/ https://wist.info/maitland-frederic/42690/#respond Fri, 24 Jul 2020 15:41:44 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=42690 Such is the unity of all history that any one who endeavors to tell a piece of it must feel that his first sentence tears a seamless web.

F. W. Maitland (1850-1906) English legal historian and jurist [Frederic William Maitland]
“A Prologue to a History of English Law,” Law Quarterly Review (Jan 1898)
    (Source)

Prologue to the 2nd ed. of his and Pollock's History of English Law (1898). Frequently mis-paraphrased, "The law is a seamless web." ]]> https://wist.info/maitland-frederic/42690/feed/ 0 42690 https://wist.info/arendt-hannah/42295/ https://wist.info/arendt-hannah/42295/#respond Wed, 01 Jul 2020 00:33:57 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=42295 And just as the law in civilized countries assumes that the voice of conscience tells everybody, “Thou shalt not kill,” even though man’s natural desires and inclinations may at times be murderous, so the law of Hitler’s land demanded that the voice of conscience tell everybody: “Thou shalt kill,” although the organizers of the massacres knew full well that murder is against the normal desires and inclinations of most people. Evil in the Third Reich had lost the quality by which most people recognize it — the quality of temptation.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, ch. 8 (1963)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/arendt-hannah/42295/feed/ 0 42295 https://wist.info/macintyre-alasdair/42243/ https://wist.info/macintyre-alasdair/42243/#respond Tue, 23 Jun 2020 18:19:54 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=42243 Modern politics cannot be a matter of genuine moral consensus. And it is not. Modern politics is civil war carried on by other means.

Alasdair MacIntyre (b. 1929) Scottish philosopher
After Virtue: A Study of Moral Theory, ch. 17 (1981)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/macintyre-alasdair/42243/feed/ 0 42243 https://wist.info/coleridge-hartley/41855/ https://wist.info/coleridge-hartley/41855/#respond Tue, 26 May 2020 19:26:28 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=41855 Think not the faith by which the just shall live
Is a dead creed, a map correct of heaven,
Far less a feeling fond and fugitive,
A thoughtless gift, withdrawn as soon as given.
It is an affirmation and an act
That bids eternal truth be present fact.

Hartley Coleridge (1796-1849) English poet, biographer, essayist, teacher
“The Just Shall Live By Faith”
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/coleridge-hartley/41855/feed/ 0 41855 https://wist.info/harlan-john-marshall/41221/ https://wist.info/harlan-john-marshall/41221/#respond Wed, 01 Apr 2020 17:01:41 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=41221 But in view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. 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. The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved.

John Marshall Harlan (1833-1911) American lawyer, politician, Supreme Court Justice (1877-1911)
Plessy v. Ferguson 163 U.S. 537, 559 (1896) [dissent]
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/harlan-john-marshall/41221/feed/ 0 41221 https://wist.info/inge-william-ralph/41015/ https://wist.info/inge-william-ralph/41015/#respond Mon, 16 Mar 2020 18:25:00 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=41015 It is worse than useless to try to put down by law a practice which a very large number of people believes to be innocent, and which must be left to the taste and conscience of the individual.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“The Birth-Rate” (1917), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)
    (Source)

Speaking of birth control. ]]> https://wist.info/inge-william-ralph/41015/feed/ 0 41015 https://wist.info/macaulay-thomas-babington/40234/ https://wist.info/macaulay-thomas-babington/40234/#respond Thu, 23 Jan 2020 17:11:57 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=40234 We give the highest and the most peculiar praise to the precepts of Machiavelli, when we say that they may frequently be of real use in regulating conduct — not so much because they are more just, or more profound, than those which might be culled from other authors as because they can be more readily applied to the problems of real life.

Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician
“Machiavelli,” Edinburgh Review (Mar 1827)
    (Source)

Review of Œvres complètes de Machiavel, J. V. Perier ed. (1825). Quotations of Machiavelli can be found here. ]]> https://wist.info/macaulay-thomas-babington/40234/feed/ 0 40234 https://wist.info/oliver-mary/39542/ https://wist.info/oliver-mary/39542/#respond Sat, 17 Aug 2019 04:28:26 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=39542 As long as you’re dancing, you can break the rules.
Sometimes breaking the rules is just extending the rules.

Sometimes there are no rules.




Mary Oliver (1935-2019) American poet
“Three Things to Remember”
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/oliver-mary/39542/feed/ 0 39542 https://wist.info/chesterton-gilbert-keith/38056/ https://wist.info/chesterton-gilbert-keith/38056/#respond Thu, 12 Oct 2017 16:02:11 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=38056 We are justified in enforcing good morals, for they belong to all mankind; but we are not justified in enforcing good manners, for good manners always mean our own manners.




Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
All Things Considered, “Limericks and Counsels of Perfection” (1908)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/chesterton-gilbert-keith/38056/feed/ 0 38056 https://wist.info/burke-edmund/37937/ https://wist.info/burke-edmund/37937/#comments Thu, 07 Sep 2017 15:46:38 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=37937 Manners are of more importance than laws. Upon them, in a great measure, the laws depend. The law touches us but here and there, and now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, but a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in. They give their whole form and color to our lives. According to their quality, they aid morals, they supply them, or they totally destroy them.




Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Letters on a Regicide Peace, Letter 1 (1796)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/burke-edmund/37937/feed/ 1 37937 https://wist.info/zunger-yonatan/37799/ https://wist.info/zunger-yonatan/37799/#respond Wed, 23 Aug 2017 01:50:33 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=37799 Tolerance is not a moral absolute; it is a peace treaty.

Yonatan Zunger (b. 1977) American essayist, software engineer, physicist, ethicist
“Tolerance is not a moral precept” (2 Jun 2017)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/zunger-yonatan/37799/feed/ 0 37799 https://wist.info/talmud/37144/ https://wist.info/talmud/37144/#respond Fri, 02 Jun 2017 01:30:51 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=37144 Loving-kindness is greater than laws; and the charities of life are more than all ceremonies.

The Talmud (AD 200-500) Collection of Jewish rabbinical writings
(Unreferenced) ]]> https://wist.info/talmud/37144/feed/ 0 37144 https://wist.info/other/36834/ https://wist.info/other/36834/#respond Fri, 21 Apr 2017 22:11:51 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=36834 No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed, or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, no will we send against him except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land.

(Other Authors and Sources)
Magna Carta, Clause 39 (1215) ]]> https://wist.info/other/36834/feed/ 0 36834 https://wist.info/lao-tzu/36742/ https://wist.info/lao-tzu/36742/#comments Wed, 12 Apr 2017 13:55:53 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=36742 The more laws and orders are made prominent,
The more thieves and bandits there will be.

Lao-tzu (604?-531? BC) Chinese philosopher, poet [also Lao-tse, Laozi]
Tao-te Ching, ch. 57 [tr. Wing-Tsit Chan] ]]> https://wist.info/lao-tzu/36742/feed/ 2 36742 https://wist.info/emerson-ralph-waldo/36461/ https://wist.info/emerson-ralph-waldo/36461/#respond Mon, 13 Mar 2017 15:17:10 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=36461 People say law, but they mean wealth.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1841)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/emerson-ralph-waldo/36461/feed/ 0 36461 https://wist.info/lee-harper/36230/ https://wist.info/lee-harper/36230/#respond Wed, 08 Feb 2017 18:54:40 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=36230 But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal — there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution, gentlemen, is a court. It can be in the Supreme Court of the United States or the humblest J.P. court in the land, or this honorable court which you serve. Our courts have their faults, as does any human institution, but in this country our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal.

Harper Lee (1926-2016) American writer [Nellie Harper Lee]
To Kill a Mockingbird, ch. 20 (1960) ]]> https://wist.info/lee-harper/36230/feed/ 0 36230 https://wist.info/tawney-r-h/36171/ https://wist.info/tawney-r-h/36171/#respond Thu, 02 Feb 2017 20:50:18 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=36171 That conception is written large over the history of the nineteenth century, both in England and in America. The doctrine which it inherited was that property was held by an absolute right on an individual basis, and to this fundamental it added another, which can be traced in principle far back into history, but which grew to its full stature only after the rise of capitalist industry, that societies act both unfairly and unwisely when they limit opportunities of economic enterprise. Hence every attempt to impose obligations as a condition of the tenure of property or of the exercise of economic activity has been met by uncompromising resistance. The story of the struggle between humanitarian sentiment and the theory of property transmitted from the eighteenth century is familiar. No one has forgotten the opposition offered in the name of the rights of property to factory legislation, to housing reform, to interference with the adulteration of goods, even to the compulsory sanitation of private houses. “May I not do what I like with my own?” was the answer to the proposal to require a minimum standard of safety and sanitation from the owners of mills and houses.

R. H. Tawney (1880-1962) English writer, economist, historian, social critic [Richard Henry Tawney]
The Acquisitive Century, ch. 3 “The Acquisitive Society” (1920)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/tawney-r-h/36171/feed/ 0 36171 https://wist.info/adams-john/35602/ https://wist.info/adams-john/35602/#respond Tue, 15 Nov 2016 05:16:38 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=35602 The law, in all vicissitudes of government, fluctuations of the passions, or flights of enthusiasm, will preserve a steady undeviating course; it will not bend to the uncertain wishes, imaginations, and wanton tempers of men. […] On the one hand it is inexorable to the cries and lamentations of the prisoners; on the other it is deaf, deaf as an adder to the clamours of the populace.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Speech (1770-12-04), “Argument in Defence of the Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials”
    (Source)

At the ellipses, Adams included Algernon Sidney's comments on the steady, dispassionate strength of the law. ]]> https://wist.info/adams-john/35602/feed/ 0 35602 https://wist.info/aeschylus/35547/ https://wist.info/aeschylus/35547/#respond Fri, 04 Nov 2016 03:10:09 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=35547 And from your policy do not wholly banish fear,
For what man living, freed from fear, will still be just?




Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
The Eumenides ]]> https://wist.info/aeschylus/35547/feed/ 0 35547 https://wist.info/adams-john/35088/ https://wist.info/adams-john/35088/#respond Wed, 14 Sep 2016 23:56:37 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=35088 It must be made a sacred maxim, that the militia obey the executive power, which represents the whole people in the execution of laws. To suppose arms in the hands of citizens, to be used at the individual discretion, except in private self-defence, or by partial orders of towns, counties, or districts of a state, is to demolish every constitution, and lay the laws prostrate, so that liberty can be enjoyed by no man; it is a dissolution of the government. The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, Vol. 3, ch. 3 “Marchamond Nedham: Errors of Government and Rules of Policy” (1787)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/adams-john/35088/feed/ 0 35088 https://wist.info/kingsley-charles/34593/ https://wist.info/kingsley-charles/34593/#respond Thu, 28 Jul 2016 04:16:08 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=34593 Tell us not that the world is governed by universal law; the news is not comfortable, but simply horrible, unless you can tell us, or allow others to tell us, that there is a loving giver, and a just administrator of that law.

Charles Kingsley (1819-1875) English clergyman, historian, essayist, novelist (pseud. "Parson Lot")
“The Meteor Shower,” sermon (26 Nov 1866)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/kingsley-charles/34593/feed/ 0 34593 https://wist.info/dumas-alexandre-pere/34564/ https://wist.info/dumas-alexandre-pere/34564/#respond Fri, 22 Jul 2016 04:32:13 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=34564 The custom and fashion of to-day will be the awkwardness and outrage of to-morrow. So arbitrary are these transient laws.




Alexandre Dumas, père (1802-1870) French novelist and dramatist
(Attributed)

Quoted in James Comper Gray, The Biblical Museum: Old Testament, vol. 3 (1878 ed.). ]]> https://wist.info/dumas-alexandre-pere/34564/feed/ 0 34564 https://wist.info/eisenhower-dwight/32673/ https://wist.info/eisenhower-dwight/32673/#respond Tue, 16 Feb 2016 14:13:57 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=32673 One of the things that I noticed in war was how difficult it was for our soldiers, at first, to realize that there are no rules to war. Our men were raised in sports, where a referee runs a football game, or an umpire a baseball game, and so forth.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Speech, Conference of the National Women’s Advisory Committee on Civil Defense (26 Oct 1954) ]]> https://wist.info/eisenhower-dwight/32673/feed/ 0 32673 https://wist.info/eisenhower-dwight/32315/ https://wist.info/eisenhower-dwight/32315/#respond Tue, 26 Jan 2016 16:58:08 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=32315 The peace we seek and need means much more than mere absence of war. It means the acceptance of law, and the fostering of justice, in all the world.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
“Developments in Eastern Europe and the Middle East,” Broadcast Speech (31 Oct 1956) ]]> https://wist.info/eisenhower-dwight/32315/feed/ 0 32315 https://wist.info/carnegie-andrew/32188/ https://wist.info/carnegie-andrew/32188/#respond Fri, 15 Jan 2016 16:45:39 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=32188 A man’s first duty is to make a competence and be independent. But his whole duty does not end there. It his his duty to do something for his needy neighbors who are less favored than himself. It is his duty to contribute to the general good of the community in which he lives. He has been protected by its laws. Because he has been protected in his various enterprises he has been able to make money sufficient for his needs and those of his family. All beyond this belongs in justice to the protecting power that has fostered him and enabled him to win pecuniary success. To try and make the world in some way better than you have found is to have a noble motive in life.

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) American industrialist and philanthropist
The Empire of Business, “Thrift as a Duty” (1902) ]]> https://wist.info/carnegie-andrew/32188/feed/ 0 32188 https://wist.info/lewis-cs/32072/ https://wist.info/lewis-cs/32072/#respond Wed, 06 Jan 2016 13:59:29 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=32072 I think all Christians would agree with me if I said that though Christianity seems at first to be all about morality, all about duties and rules and guilt and virtue, yet it leads you on, out of all that, into something beyond.

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, “Faith” (1952)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/lewis-cs/32072/feed/ 0 32072 https://wist.info/hughes-charles-evans/31687/ https://wist.info/hughes-charles-evans/31687/#respond Fri, 04 Dec 2015 16:14:20 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=31687 While democracy must have its organization and controls, its vital breath is individual liberty.

Charles Evans Hughes, Sr. (1862-1948) American statesman, politician, Supreme Court Justice (1910-1916, 1930-1941)
Speech (4 Mar 1939) ]]> https://wist.info/hughes-charles-evans/31687/feed/ 0 31687 https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/31045/ https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/31045/#respond Thu, 15 Oct 2015 14:27:07 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=31045 Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser — in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech (1850), Notes for a Law Lecture (fragment)
    (Source)

No lecture of the sort given by Lincoln has been recorded. The date was assigned by Niclay and Hay, with nothing concrete to contradict it. The lecture notes might well have been written several years later. ]]> https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/31045/feed/ 0 31045 https://wist.info/justinian-i/30966/ https://wist.info/justinian-i/30966/#respond Thu, 08 Oct 2015 13:27:23 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30966 The precepts of the law are these: to live honestly, to injure no one, and to give everyone his due.

Justinian I (c. 482-565) Byzantine emperor [Justinian the Great]
Code of Justinian (533) ]]> https://wist.info/justinian-i/30966/feed/ 0 30966 https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/30894/ https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/30894/#respond Thu, 01 Oct 2015 15:23:26 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30894 We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was “illegal.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Letter from Birmingham Jail (16 Apr 1963)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/30894/feed/ 0 30894 https://wist.info/brecht-berthold/30895/ https://wist.info/brecht-berthold/30895/#respond Thu, 01 Oct 2015 15:05:03 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30895 POLLY PEACHUM: The law is simply and solely made for the exploitation of those who do not understand it or of those who, for naked need, cannot obey it.

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) German poet, playwright, director, dramaturgist
Die Dreigroschenoper [The Three-Penny Opera], Act 3, sc. 1 (1928)

Alt. trans.: "The law was made for one thing alone, for the exploitation of those who don't understand it, or are prevented by naked misery from obeying it." ]]> https://wist.info/brecht-berthold/30895/feed/ 0 30895 https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/30809/ https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/30809/#respond Thu, 24 Sep 2015 13:32:49 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30809 You must remember that some things that are legally right are not morally right.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)

Remark to potential client (1840s?), refusing his case involving a $600 claim against a widow with six children. In F. Brown, The Every-Day Life of Abraham Lincoln, 2.6 (1887). ]]> https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/30809/feed/ 0 30809 https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/30733/ https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/30733/#respond Thu, 17 Sep 2015 13:17:54 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30733 No law is stronger than is the public sentiment where it is to be enforced.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Letter (1859-12-22) to John J. Crittenden
    (Source)

Crittenden was a US Senator from Kentucky, a former Whig but at the time part of the American (Know-Nothing) Party. Lincoln was criticizing the idea of a party platform with the sole position of "The Constitution, the Union, and the enforcement of the laws," and used the resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act in the North as an example.

See Lincoln (1858). ]]> https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/30733/feed/ 0 30733 https://wist.info/napoleon-bonaparte/30689/ https://wist.info/napoleon-bonaparte/30689/#respond Mon, 14 Sep 2015 13:38:26 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30689 One should never forbid what one lacks the power to prevent.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
(Attributed)

An aphorism he frequently used. See Sophocles. ]]> https://wist.info/napoleon-bonaparte/30689/feed/ 0 30689 https://wist.info/jackson-andrew/30631/ https://wist.info/jackson-andrew/30631/#respond Thu, 10 Sep 2015 15:17:52 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30631 The great can protect themselves, but the poor and humble require the arm and shield of the law.

Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) American politician, general, US President (1829-1837)
Letter to John Quincy Adams (26 Aug 1821) ]]> https://wist.info/jackson-andrew/30631/feed/ 0 30631 https://wist.info/lebon-gustave/30602/ https://wist.info/lebon-gustave/30602/#respond Tue, 08 Sep 2015 14:08:17 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30602 Law and Justice play no role in the relations of peoples of unequal strength.

Gustave LeBon (1841-1931) German psychologist
Aphorisms of Present Times, 2.6 (1913) ]]> https://wist.info/lebon-gustave/30602/feed/ 0 30602 https://wist.info/heinlein-robert-a/30466/ https://wist.info/heinlein-robert-a/30466/#respond Tue, 01 Sep 2015 12:34:51 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30466 In dealing with the law and with people I have found a vast difference between “should” and “is.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Friday [Brian] (1982) ]]> https://wist.info/heinlein-robert-a/30466/feed/ 0 30466 https://wist.info/sophocles/30455/ https://wist.info/sophocles/30455/#respond Mon, 31 Aug 2015 12:54:22 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30455 What you cannot enforce,
Do not command!

Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Oedipus at Colonus, l. 839 [tr. Fitzgerald (1941)] ]]> https://wist.info/sophocles/30455/feed/ 0 30455 https://wist.info/madison-james/30374/ https://wist.info/madison-james/30374/#respond Thu, 27 Aug 2015 13:54:34 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30374 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; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be tomorrow.

James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
The Federalist Papers, #62 (Feb 1788) ]]> https://wist.info/madison-james/30374/feed/ 0 30374 https://wist.info/fuller-thomas-1654/30290/ https://wist.info/fuller-thomas-1654/30290/#respond Thu, 20 Aug 2015 13:15:47 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30290 Unkindness has no Remedy at Law.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs (compiler), # 5402 (1732)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/fuller-thomas-1654/30290/feed/ 0 30290 https://wist.info/franklin-benjamin/30207/ https://wist.info/franklin-benjamin/30207/#respond Thu, 13 Aug 2015 17:04:29 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30207 Honest Men often go to Law for their Right; when Wise Men would sit down with the Wrong, supposing the first Loss least. In some Countries the Course of the Courts is so tedious, and the Expence so high, that the Remedy, Justice, is worse than, Injustice, the Disease. In my Travels I once saw a Sign call’d The Two Men at Law; One of them was painted on one Side, in a melancholy Posture, all in Rags, with this Scroll, I have lost my Cause. The other was drawn capering for Joy, on the other Side, with these Words, I have gain’d my Suit; but he was stark naked.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1742 ed.)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/franklin-benjamin/30207/feed/ 0 30207 https://wist.info/eisenhower-dwight/29934/ https://wist.info/eisenhower-dwight/29934/#respond Thu, 16 Jul 2015 13:19:10 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=29934 The final battle against intolerance is to be fought, not in the chambers of any legislature, but in the hearts of men.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Speech, Hollywood Bowl, Beverly Hills, California (19 Oct 1956) ]]> https://wist.info/eisenhower-dwight/29934/feed/ 0 29934 https://wist.info/adams-abigail/29540/ https://wist.info/adams-abigail/29540/#respond Fri, 05 Jun 2015 20:39:31 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=29540 That your Sex are Naturally Tyrannical is a Truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute, but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of Master for the more tender and endearing one of Friend. Why, then, not put it out of the power of the vicious and the Lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity? Men of Sense in all Ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your sex; regard us then as Beings placed by Providence under your protection, and in imitation of the Supreme Being make use of that power only for our happiness.

Abigail Adams (1744-1818) American correspondent, First Lady (1797-1801)
Letter to John Adams (31 Mar 1776) ]]> https://wist.info/adams-abigail/29540/feed/ 0 29540 https://wist.info/holmes-jr-oliver-wendell/28967/ https://wist.info/holmes-jr-oliver-wendell/28967/#respond Fri, 10 Apr 2015 12:11:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=28967 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.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Speech (1897-01-18), “The Path of the Law,” Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/holmes-jr-oliver-wendell/28967/feed/ 0 28967 https://wist.info/publilius-syrus/28629/ https://wist.info/publilius-syrus/28629/#respond Tue, 17 Mar 2015 12:59:10 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=28629 To spare the guilty is to injure the innocent.

Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 113 [tr. Lyman (1862)] ]]> https://wist.info/publilius-syrus/28629/feed/ 0 28629 https://wist.info/mencken-hl/28302/ https://wist.info/mencken-hl/28302/#respond Thu, 12 Feb 2015 16:01:41 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=28302 The Bill of Rights was designed trustfully to prohibit forever two of the favorite crimes of all known governments: the seizure of private property without adequate compensation and the invasion of the citizen’s liberty without justifiable cause and due process.

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
“On Government,” Prejudices: Fourth Series (1924) ]]> https://wist.info/mencken-hl/28302/feed/ 0 28302 https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/28076/ https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/28076/#respond Tue, 20 Jan 2015 13:37:30 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=28076 A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1787-12-20) to James Madison
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/28076/feed/ 0 28076 https://wist.info/gaiman-neil/28034/ https://wist.info/gaiman-neil/28034/#comments Mon, 19 Jan 2015 14:21:33 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=28034 The Law is a blunt instrument. It’s not a scalpel. It’s a club. If there is something you consider indefensible, and there is something you consider defensible, and the same laws can take them both out, you are going to find yourself defending the indefensible.

Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Blog entry (2008-12-01), “Why defend freedom of icky speech?”
    (Source)

See Dershowitz. ]]> https://wist.info/gaiman-neil/28034/feed/ 1 28034 https://wist.info/blackstone-william/27776/ https://wist.info/blackstone-william/27776/#respond Wed, 17 Dec 2014 14:08:32 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=27776 The rack, or question, to extort a confession from criminals, is a practice of a different nature; […] an engine of the state, not of law.

William Blackstone (1723-1780) British jurist, judge, politician
Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book 4 “Of Public Wrongs,” ch. 25 “Arraignment” (1769) ]]> https://wist.info/blackstone-william/27776/feed/ 0 27776 https://wist.info/brooks-thomas/27644/ https://wist.info/brooks-thomas/27644/#respond Wed, 03 Dec 2014 15:50:32 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=27644 An excellent master is always better than an excellent law. Let your laws be ever so good, if the lawmakers are bad, all will come to nothing.

Thomas Brooks (1608-1680) English Puritan divine, writer
Heaven on Earth (1654) ]]> https://wist.info/brooks-thomas/27644/feed/ 0 27644 https://wist.info/brandeis-louis/27447/ https://wist.info/brandeis-louis/27447/#respond Tue, 11 Nov 2014 14:34:44 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=27447 Stare decisis is usually the wise policy, because in most matters it is more important that the applicable rule of law be settled than that it be settled right. … This is commonly true even where the error is a matter of serious concern, provided correction can be had by legislation. But in cases involving the Federal Constitution, where correction through legislative action is practically impossible, this court has often overruled its earlier decisions. 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 (1856-1941) American lawyer, activist, Supreme Court Justice (1916-39)
Burnet v. Coronado Oil & Gas Co., 285 U.S. 393 (1932) [dissent] ]]> https://wist.info/brandeis-louis/27447/feed/ 0 27447 https://wist.info/burgh-james/27346/ https://wist.info/burgh-james/27346/#respond Thu, 30 Oct 2014 12:24:26 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=27346 Did reason govern mankind, there would be little occasion for any other government, either monarchical, aristocratical, democratical, or mixed. But man, whom we dignify with the honourable title of Rational, being much more frequently influenced, in his proceedings, by supposed interest, by passion, by sensual appetite, by caprice, by any thing, by nothing, than by reason; it has, in all civilized ages and countries, been found proper to frame laws and statutes fortified by sanctions, and to establish orders of men invested with authority to execute those laws, and inflict the deserved punishments upon the violators of them. By such means only has it been found possible to preserve the general peace and tranquility.

James Burgh (1714-1775) British politician and writer
Political Disquisitions, Book 1 “Of Government, briefly,” ch. 1 “Government by Laws and Sanctions, why necessary” (1774)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/burgh-james/27346/feed/ 0 27346 https://wist.info/brandeis-louis/27321/ https://wist.info/brandeis-louis/27321/#respond Tue, 28 Oct 2014 11:57:22 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=27321 At the foundation of our civil liberty lies the principle which denies to government officials an exceptional position before the law and which subjects them to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen.

Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) American lawyer, activist, Supreme Court Justice (1916-39)
Burdeau v. McDowell, 256 U.S. 465, 477 (1921) [dissent] ]]> https://wist.info/brandeis-louis/27321/feed/ 0 27321 https://wist.info/sutherland-george/26827/ https://wist.info/sutherland-george/26827/#respond Tue, 09 Sep 2014 12:41:35 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=26827 The legal right of a taxpayer to decrease the amount of what otherwise would be his taxes, or altogether avoid them, by means which the law permits, cannot be doubted.

George Sutherland (1862-1942) Anglo-American jurist, Supreme Court Justice (1922-1938)
Gregory v. Helvering, 293 U.S. 465, 469 (1935) ]]> https://wist.info/sutherland-george/26827/feed/ 0 26827 https://wist.info/sutherland-george/26753/ https://wist.info/sutherland-george/26753/#respond Tue, 02 Sep 2014 12:14:17 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=26753 If the provisions of the Constitution be not upheld when they pinch as well as when they comfort, they may as well be abandoned.

George Sutherland (1862-1942) Anglo-American jurist, Supreme Court Justice (1922-1938)
Home Building & Loan Association v. Blaisdell, 290 U.S. 398, 483 (1934) ]]> https://wist.info/sutherland-george/26753/feed/ 0 26753 https://wist.info/madison-james/26332/ https://wist.info/madison-james/26332/#respond Thu, 07 Aug 2014 13:19:10 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=26332 If this spirit ever be so far debased as to tolerate a law not obligatory on the legislature as well as on the people, the people will be able to tolerate anything but liberty.

James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
The Federalist #57 “The Alleged Tendency of the New Plan to Elevate the Few at the Expense of the Many” (19 Feb 1788) ]]> https://wist.info/madison-james/26332/feed/ 0 26332 https://wist.info/lorimer-george-horace/25963/ https://wist.info/lorimer-george-horace/25963/#respond Tue, 08 Jul 2014 12:42:56 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=25963 Some men think that rules should be made of cast iron; I believe they should be made of rubber, so they can be stretched to fit any particular case and then spring back into shape again. The really important part of a rule is the exception to it.

George Horace Lorimer (1867-1937) American journalist, author, magazine editor
Old Gorgon Graham: More Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son, ch. 3 (1903)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/lorimer-george-horace/25963/feed/ 0 25963 https://wist.info/solon/25797/ https://wist.info/solon/25797/#respond Wed, 18 Jun 2014 12:47:39 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=25797 At a dinner given by Periander, tyrant of Corinth, to the Seven Wise Men, including Anacharsis, the question was asked, What is the ideal state, or most perfect form of popular government? The answers given by the philosophers were as follows:—

Solon: “That in which an injury done to the least of its citizens is an injury done to all.”
Bias: “Where the law has no superior.”
Thales: “Where the rich are neither too rich, nor the poor too poor.”
Anacharsis: “Where virtue is honored, and vice detested.”
Pittacus: “Where dignities are always conferred on the good, never on the bad.”
Cleobulus: “Where the citizens fear blame more than punishment.”
Chilo: “Where the laws are more regarded, and have more authority, than the orators.”
Goethe has asked, “What government is best? That which teaches us to govern ourselves.” At another time he said, “The best government is that which makes itself superfluous.”
“Good government,” says Confucius, “obtains when those who are near are made happy, and those who are far off are attracted.”


Solon (c. 638 BC - 558 BC) Athenian statesman, lawmaker, poet
(Attributed)
    (Source)

In S.A. Bent, Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men, "Solon" (1887). Compare translations here. ]]> https://wist.info/solon/25797/feed/ 0 25797 https://wist.info/plato/25645/ https://wist.info/plato/25645/#respond Wed, 04 Jun 2014 14:12:24 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=25645 The first and highest form of the state and of the government and of the law is that which there prevails most widely the ancient saying, that “Friends have all things in common.”

Plato (c.428-347 BC) Greek philosopher
Plato, Laws, 5.739 [tr. Jowett (1894)] ]]> https://wist.info/plato/25645/feed/ 0 25645 https://wist.info/einstein-albert/25562/ https://wist.info/einstein-albert/25562/#respond Wed, 28 May 2014 12:07:12 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=25562 The State exists for man, not man for the State.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
“The Road to Peace,” New York Times (22 Nov 1931)
    (Source)

In The World As I See It [tr. Harris (1934)], given as "The State is made for man, not man for the State." ]]> https://wist.info/einstein-albert/25562/feed/ 0 25562 https://wist.info/storr-anthony/23860/ https://wist.info/storr-anthony/23860/#respond Wed, 19 Feb 2014 13:06:28 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=23860 There should be no articles of faith in science, unless it be the faith that no discovery, no law, is so absolute that it cannot be superseded.

Anthony Storr (1920-2001) English psychiatrist and author
Feet of Clay: Saints, Sinners and Madmen, ch. 10 (1996)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/storr-anthony/23860/feed/ 0 23860 https://wist.info/stout-rex/23685/ https://wist.info/stout-rex/23685/#respond Thu, 30 Jan 2014 12:58:01 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=23685 Remember that those of us who are both civilized and prudent commit our murders only under the complicated rules which permit us to avoid personal responsibility.

Rex Stout (1886-1975) American writer
Fer-de-Lance, Nero Wolfe, chapter 16 (1934) ]]> https://wist.info/stout-rex/23685/feed/ 0 23685 https://wist.info/stout-rex/23361/ https://wist.info/stout-rex/23361/#respond Thu, 02 Jan 2014 20:25:45 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=23361 I think the detective story is by far the best upholder of the democratic doctrine in literature. I mean, there couldn’t have been detective stories until there were democracies, because the very foundation of the detective story is the thesis that if you’re guilty you’ll get it in the neck and if you’re innocent you can’t possibly be harmed. No matter who you are. There was no such conception of justice until after 1830. There was no such thing as a policeman or a detective in the world before 1830, because the modern conception of the policeman and detective, namely, a man whose only function is to find out who did it and then get the evidence that will punish him, did not exist. … In Paris before the year 1800 — read the Dumas stories — there were gangs of people whose business was to go out and punish wrongdoers. But why? Because they had hurt De Marillac or Richelieu or the Duke or some Huguenot noble, not just because they had harmed society. It is only the modern policeman that is out to protect society.

Rex Stout (1886-1975) American writer
On “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” Invitation to Learning Radio Show, hosted by Mark Van Doren (Jan 1942)

Transcribed in Mark Van Doren, The New Invitation to Learning: The Essence of the Great Books of All Times (1942). ]]> https://wist.info/stout-rex/23361/feed/ 0 23361 https://wist.info/stevens-john-paul/22059/ https://wist.info/stevens-john-paul/22059/#respond Tue, 13 Aug 2013 12:35:11 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=22059 A democracy cannot function effectively when its constituent members believe laws are being bought and sold.

John Paul Stevens (1920-2019) American lawyer, US Supreme Court Justice (1975-2010)
Citizens United v. FEC, 558 U.S. 310 (2010) [dissenting]
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/stevens-john-paul/22059/feed/ 0 22059 https://wist.info/joubert-joseph/21783/ https://wist.info/joubert-joseph/21783/#respond Mon, 29 Jul 2013 17:10:48 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=21783 In political institutions, almost everything we call an abuse was once a remedy.

[Presque tout ce que nous appelons un abus fut un remède dans les institutions politiques.]


Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet
Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 18 “Du Siècle [On the Age],” ¶ 21 (1850 ed.) [tr. Auster (1983), 1813 entry]
    (Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translation:



In political institutions nearly everything that we now call an abuse, was once a remedy.
[tr. Lyttelton (1899), ch. 17, ¶ 8]


]]> https://wist.info/joubert-joseph/21783/feed/ 0 21783 https://wist.info/bentham-jeremy/20665/ https://wist.info/bentham-jeremy/20665/#respond Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:18:05 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=20665 The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) English jurist and philosopher
An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, ch. 17, sec. 1, footnote (1789)
    (Source)

On animals, questioning why they are treated differently under the law. ]]> https://wist.info/bentham-jeremy/20665/feed/ 0 20665 https://wist.info/bolt-robert/19473/ https://wist.info/bolt-robert/19473/#respond Fri, 26 Oct 2012 12:10:51 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=19473 MORE: I will not take the oath. I will not tell you why I will not.

NORFOLK: Then your reasons must be treasonable!

MORE: Not “must be”; may be.

NORFOLK: It’s a fair assumption!

MORE: The law requires more than an assumption; the law requires a fact.


Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, play, Act 2 (1960)
    (Source)

The 1966 film adaptation uses the same language. ]]> https://wist.info/bolt-robert/19473/feed/ 0 19473 https://wist.info/johnson-samuel/19352/ https://wist.info/johnson-samuel/19352/#respond Fri, 12 Oct 2012 14:16:57 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=19352 All Crimes are safe, but hated Poverty.
This, only this, the rigid Law pursues.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Poem (1738), “London: A Poem,” ll. 159-160
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/johnson-samuel/19352/feed/ 0 19352 https://wist.info/bismark-otto-von/18865/ https://wist.info/bismark-otto-von/18865/#comments Fri, 24 Aug 2012 15:11:44 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=18865 Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.

Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) Prussian statesman
(Misattributed)

This and variants are attributed to Bismarck (no earlier than the 1930s), as well as to Kaiser Wilhelm, Benjamin Disraeli, and French statesman Honoré Gabriel de Riqueti. Variations on this theme were popular in late 19th Century America.

The precise wording above is attributed to Vermont lawyer and author John Godfrey Saxe, in University Chronicle, University of Michigan (27 Mar 1869).

Variants (usually cited to Bismarck):
• "If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made."
• "Laws are like sausages — it is best not to see them being made."
• "Laws are like sausages. It is better not to see them being made."
• "Laws are like sausages. You should never see them made."
• "Laws are like sausages. You should never watch them being made."
• "Law and sausage are two things you do not want to see being made."
• "No one should see how laws or sausages are made."
• "To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making."
• "The making of laws like the making of sausages, is not a pretty sight."
• "Je weniger die Leute darüber wissen, wie Würste und Gesetze gemacht werden, desto besser schlafen sie nachts." [The less the people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they sleep in the night.]
]]> https://wist.info/bismark-otto-von/18865/feed/ 1 18865 https://wist.info/jackson-robert-h/17893/ https://wist.info/jackson-robert-h/17893/#respond Thu, 03 May 2012 12:40:33 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=17893 When we went to school we were told that we were governed by laws, not men. As a result of that, many people think there is no need to pay any attention to judicial candidates because judges merely apply the law by some mathematical formula and a good judge and a bad judge all apply the same kind of law. The fact is that the most important part of a judge’s work is the exercise of judgment and that the law in a court is never better than the common sense judgment of the judge that is presiding.

Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941-54), lawyer, jurist, politician
Speech, Greater Buffalo Advertising Club, New York (1933)
    (Source)

Quoted in Eugene Gerhart, America's Advocate: Robert H. Jackson, ch. 4 (1958). ]]> https://wist.info/jackson-robert-h/17893/feed/ 0 17893 https://wist.info/thoreau-henry-david/16481/ https://wist.info/thoreau-henry-david/16481/#respond Mon, 21 Nov 2011 13:22:51 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=16481 If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth, — certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Essay (1849-05), “Resistance to Civil Government [On the Duty of Civil Disobedience],” Æsthetic Papers, No. 1, Article 10
    (Source)

Based on an 1848 lecture at the Concord Lyceum. ]]> https://wist.info/thoreau-henry-david/16481/feed/ 0 16481 https://wist.info/machiavelli-niccolo/15717/ https://wist.info/machiavelli-niccolo/15717/#respond Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:01:57 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=15717 Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasion for it.

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) Italian politician, philosopher, political scientist
The Discourses on Livy, Book 1, Introduction (1517) [tr. Detmold (1882)]

Alt. trans.: "It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope." [Discourse upon the First Ten Books of Livy, Book 1, ch. 3 (1513-18) [tr. Gilbert]] ]]> https://wist.info/machiavelli-niccolo/15717/feed/ 0 15717 https://wist.info/hobbes-thomas/12391/ https://wist.info/hobbes-thomas/12391/#respond Thu, 07 Oct 2010 13:10:32 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=12391 To this war of every man against every man, this also is consequent; that nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice, have there no place. Where there is no common power, there is no law; where no law, no injustice. Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) English philosopher
Leviathan, Part 1, ch. 13 (1651)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/hobbes-thomas/12391/feed/ 0 12391 https://wist.info/terence/11997/ https://wist.info/terence/11997/#comments Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:52:37 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=11997 Extreme law is often extreme injustice.

[Ius summum saepe summa malitia est.]


Terence (186?-159 BC) African-Roman dramatist [Publius Terentius Afer]
Heauton Timoroumenos [The Self-Tormentor], Act 4, sc. 5, l. 48 (l. 796)

Alternate translations:
• "The highest law is often the greatest wrong."
• "Extreme justice is often extreme malice."
• "Rigorous law is often rigorous injustice."
]]> https://wist.info/terence/11997/feed/ 1 11997 https://wist.info/augustine-of-hippo/11042/ https://wist.info/augustine-of-hippo/11042/#respond Wed, 26 May 2010 15:09:16 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=11042 For it seems to me that an unjust law is no law at all.

[Nam mihi lex esse non videtur, quae justa non fuerit.]


Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
On Free Choice of the Will [De Libero Arbitrio Voluntatis], Book 1, ch. 4, sec. 11 / 33 (1.4.11.22) (AD 388) [tr Williams (1993)]
    (Source)

More discussion about this and parallel quotations from other notables: An unjust law is no law at all - Wikipedia.

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:



A law which is not just does not seem to me to be a law.
[tr. Mark Pontifex (1955)]




For I think that a law that is not just is not a law.
[tr. Benjamin/Hackstaff (1964)]




For I think a law that is not just, is not actually a law.
[E.g.]


]]> https://wist.info/augustine-of-hippo/11042/feed/ 0 11042 https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/8907/ https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/8907/#respond Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:14:06 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=8907 I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Letter from Birmingham Jail (16 Apr 1963)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/8907/feed/ 0 8907 https://wist.info/cooper-james-fenimore/8469/ https://wist.info/cooper-james-fenimore/8469/#respond Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:30:23 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=8469 It is the besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny.

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) American novelist
“On the Disadvantages of Democracy,” The American Democrat (1838) ]]> https://wist.info/cooper-james-fenimore/8469/feed/ 0 8469 https://wist.info/stevenson-adlai-ewing/7870/ https://wist.info/stevenson-adlai-ewing/7870/#respond Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:01:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=7870 Laws are never as effective as habits. The fight for equal rights must go on every day in our own souls and consciences, in our schools and our churches and our homes, in our factories and our offices — as well as in our city councils, our state legislatures and our national Congress.

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-08-28), “Faith in Liberalism,” State Committee of the Liberal Party, New York City
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/stevenson-adlai-ewing/7870/feed/ 0 7870 https://wist.info/euripides/6979/ https://wist.info/euripides/6979/#respond Thu, 02 Apr 2009 10:59:10 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6979 HECUBA: Then no man on earth is truly free,
All are slaves of money or necessity.
Public opinion or fear of prosecution
forces each one, against his conscience,
to conform.

ἙΚΆΒΗ:[φεῦ.
οὐκ ἔστι θνητῶν ὅστις ἔστ’ ἐλεύθερος·
ἢ χρημάτων γὰρ δοῦλός ἐστιν ἢ τύχης
ἢ πλῆθος αὐτὸν πόλεος ἢ νόμων γραφαὶ
εἴργουσι χρῆσθαι μὴ κατὰ γνώμην τρόποις.]


Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Hecuba [Hekabe; Ἑκάβη], l. 864ff (c. 424 BC) [tr. Arrowsmith (1958)]
    (Source)

When Agamemnon claims he cannot help her get revenge, as much as he'd like to if he were free to assist, because he has to pay attention to the sentiments of the Greek army.

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:



Alas! there's no man free: for some are slaves
To gold, to fortune others, and the rest,
The multitude or written laws restrain
From acting as their better judgement dictates.
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]




Alas! no mortal is there who is free. For either he is the slave of money or of fortune; or the populace of the city or the dictates of the law constrain him to adopt manners not accordant with his natural inclinations.
[tr. Edwards (1826)]




Vain is the boast of liberty in man;
A slave to fortune, or a slave to wealth,
Or by the people or the laws restrain’d,
He dares not act the dictates of his will
[ed. Ramage (1864)]




Ah, among mortals is there no man free!
To lucre or to fortune is he slave:
The city's rabble or the laws' impeachment
Constrains him into paths his soul abhors.
[tr. Way (Loeb) (1894)]




Ah! there is not in the world a single man free; for he is a slave either to money or to fortune, or else the people in their thousands or the fear of public prosecution prevents him from following the dictates of his heart.
[tr. Coleridge (1938)]




Show me the mortal man who's really free.
He's either a slave to money or to chance.
Or the pressure of the mob or legal code
curbs him from acting as his will dictates.
[tr. Harrison (2005)]




Ah! But there’s no such thing as a free man! All men are slaves, Agamemnon! Slaves to money, to Fate, to the cries of the masses, to the written laws! They all stop him from doing what he wants.
[tr. Theodoridis (2007)]




Then no one is free
in this world. He’s chained to money, or to luck, or to majority
opinion, or to law. Any way you look at it,
he’s still a slave.
[tr. Karden/Street (2011)]




Alas!
there is not in the world a single man who is free;
for he is a slave either to money or to fortune,
or else the mob, or fear of law, prevents him
from following the dictates of his heart.
[ed. Yeroulanos (2016)]




There is no mortal who is free. Either he is a slave to money or fortune, or the city’s mob or its laws make him live otherwise than he would wish.
[tr. @sentantiq (2016)]




Ha!
No one who is mortal is free --
We are either the slave of money or chance;
Or the majority of people or the city’s laws
Keep us from living by our own judgment.
[tr. @sentantiq (2020)]


]]> https://wist.info/euripides/6979/feed/ 0 6979 https://wist.info/adams-john/6715/ https://wist.info/adams-john/6715/#respond Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:44:54 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6715 They define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Essay (1775-03-06), “Novanglus,” No. 7, Boston Gazette
    (Source)

This series of essays was written by Adams under the pseudonym of "Novanglus" (Latin for "New England") responding to essays from his past friend Daniel Leonard as "Massachusettensis" on colonial leadership and what the proper relationship was between the American colonies and Britain.

Adams credited the concept of the line above to Aristotle, Livy, and specifically to James Harrington (1611-77), who (also crediting Aristotle and Livy) wrote in The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656) of "government [...] is the empire of laws and not of men," "a commonwealth is an empire of laws and not of men," and "a commonwealth is a government of laws and not of men."

Adams later used the term ("government of laws and not of men") in the Massachusetts Constitution, Bill of Rights, Article 30 (1780), enforcing a separation of powers between the executive, judicial, and legislative branches. ]]> https://wist.info/adams-john/6715/feed/ 0 6715 https://wist.info/gaiman-neil/6641/ https://wist.info/gaiman-neil/6641/#respond Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:26:38 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6641 You ask, What makes it worth defending? and the only answer I can give is this: Freedom to write, freedom to read, freedom to own material that you believe is worth defending means you’re going to have to stand up for stuff you don’t believe is worth defending, even stuff you find actively distasteful, because laws are big blunt instruments that do not differentiate between what you like and what you don’t, because prosecutors are humans and bear grudges and fight for re-election, because one person’s obscenity is another person’s art. Because if you don’t stand up for the stuff you don’t like, when they come for the stuff you do like, you’ve already lost.

Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Blog entry (2008-12-01), “Why defend freedom of icky speech?”
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/gaiman-neil/6641/feed/ 0 6641 https://wist.info/bok-derek/6357/ https://wist.info/bok-derek/6357/#respond Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:23:14 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6357 There is far too much law for those who can afford it and far too little for those who cannot.

Derek Bok (b. 1930) American lawyer, educator
Report to Harvard Board of Overseers (21 Apr 1983) ]]> https://wist.info/bok-derek/6357/feed/ 0 6357 https://wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/5984/ https://wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/5984/#respond Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:16:27 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5984 I was one of those who was very happy when the original prohibition amendment passed. I thought innocently that a law in this country would automatically be complied with, and my own observation led me to feel rather ardently that the less strong liquor anyone consumed the better it was. During prohibition I observed the law meticulously, but I came gradually to see that laws are only observed with the consent of the individuals concerned and a moral change still depends on the individual and not on the passage of any law.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Column (1939-07-14), “My Day”
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/5984/feed/ 0 5984 https://wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/5853/ https://wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/5853/#respond Tue, 13 May 2008 10:21:16 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5853 Little by little it dawned upon me that this law [Prohibition] was not making people drink any less, but it was making hypocrites and law breakers of a great number of people. It seemed to me best to go back to the old situation in which, if a man or woman drank to excess, they were injuring themselves and their immediate family and friends and the act was a violation against their own sense of morality and no violation against the law of the land.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Column (1939-07-14), “My Day”
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/5853/feed/ 0 5853 https://wist.info/solzhenitzen-alexander/5791/ https://wist.info/solzhenitzen-alexander/5791/#respond Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:37:33 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5791 I have spent all my life under a communist regime and I will tell you that a society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed. But a society with no other scale but the legal one is not quite worthy of man either. A society which is based on the letter of the law and never reaches any higher is taking very scarce advantage of the high level of human possibilities. The letter of the law is too cold and formal to have a beneficial influence on society. Whenever the tissue of life is woven of legalistic relations, there is an atmosphere of moral mediocrity, paralyzing man’s noblest impulses.

Alexander Solzhenitsen (1918-2008) Russian novelist, emigre [Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn]
“A World Split Apart,” Commencement Address, Harvard (8 Jun 1978)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/solzhenitzen-alexander/5791/feed/ 0 5791 https://wist.info/hand-learned/5782/ https://wist.info/hand-learned/5782/#respond Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:29:39 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5782 If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.

Learned Hand (1872-1961) American jurist
Speech, Legal Aid Society of New York (1951-02-16)
    (Source)

On ensuring that accused persons did not lack for counsel needed for a fair trial. ]]> https://wist.info/hand-learned/5782/feed/ 0 5782 https://wist.info/einstein-albert/5353/ https://wist.info/einstein-albert/5353/#respond Mon, 08 Oct 2007 10:26:05 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5353 The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in the United States is closely connected with this.




Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
“My First Impression of the U.S.A.” (1921)
    (Source)

Later published as "Some Notes on my American Impressions" in The World As I See It (1949) ]]> https://wist.info/einstein-albert/5353/feed/ 0 5353 https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/5299/ https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/5299/#respond Fri, 14 Sep 2007 17:29:44 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5299 It may be true that morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. It may be true that the law cannot change the heart but it can restrain the heartless. It may be true that the law can’t make a man love me, but it can restrain him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important also.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
“The Other America,” speech, Stanford University (14 Apr 1967)
    (Source)

A motif King used frequently. In the Wall Street Journal (13 Nov 1962), King used the line, "It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important." In Strength to Love, 3.3 (1963), he wrote, "Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless." ]]> https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/5299/feed/ 0 5299 https://wist.info/hand-learned/5256/ https://wist.info/hand-learned/5256/#respond Wed, 29 Aug 2007 13:58:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5256 There is no surer way to misread any document than to read it literally; in every interpretation we must pass between Scylla and Charybdis; and I certainly do not wish to add to the barrels of ink that have been spent in logging the route. As nearly as we can, we must put ourselves in the place of those who uttered the words, and try to divine how they would have dealt with the unforeseen situation; and, although their words are by far the most decisive evidence of what they would have done, they are by no means final.

Learned Hand (1872-1961) American jurist
Guiseppi v. Walling, 144 F.2d 608, 624 (2d Cir. 1944) [concurring]
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/hand-learned/5256/feed/ 0 5256 https://wist.info/sprecht-robert-d/3699/ https://wist.info/sprecht-robert-d/3699/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=3699 Under any conditions, anywhere, whatever you are doing, there is some ordinance under which you can be booked.

Robert D. Specht (1913-1996) American research analyst
(Attributed)

Summarized in various Murphy's Laws lists as "Specht's Meta-Law," as in Paul Dickson, The Official Rules. See also Cardinal Richelieu. ]]> https://wist.info/sprecht-robert-d/3699/feed/ 0 3699 https://wist.info/twain-mark/3938/ https://wist.info/twain-mark/3938/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=3938 Laws are sand, customs are rock. Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped, but an openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment. The penalty may be unfair, unrighteous, illogical, and a cruelty; no mater, it will be inflicted, just the same.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Essay (1906), “The Gorky Incident,” Letters from the Earth (c. 1909; pub. 1962) [ed. DeVoto (1939)]
    (Source)

Commenting on the eviction of Maxim Gorky from multiple hotels in New York City because the woman he was traveling with was not his wife. Twain was a supporter of Gorky's efforts to foment revolution in Tsarist Russia.

The essay was not published in Twain's lifetime. It's original publication was in the Slavonic and East European Review (1944-08), also edited by DeVoto. ]]> https://wist.info/twain-mark/3938/feed/ 0 3938 https://wist.info/selden-john/3497/ https://wist.info/selden-john/3497/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=3497 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 (1584-1654) English jurist, legal scholar, antiquarian, polymath
Table Talk, § 76.2 “Law” (1689)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/selden-john/3497/feed/ 0 3497 https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/2298/ https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/2298/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=2298 In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Letter from Birmingham Jail (16 Apr 1963) ]]> https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/2298/feed/ 0 2298 https://wist.info/grant-ulysses-s/1724/ https://wist.info/grant-ulysses-s/1724/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=1724 I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.

Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) American military leader, US President (1869-77)
Inaugural Address ]]> https://wist.info/grant-ulysses-s/1724/feed/ 0 1724 https://wist.info/hand-learned/1764/ https://wist.info/hand-learned/1764/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=1764 I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it.

Learned Hand (1872-1961) American jurist
“The Spirit of Liberty,” speech, “I Am an American Day,” New York (1941-05-21)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/hand-learned/1764/feed/ 0 1764 https://wist.info/johnson-lyndon/2123/ https://wist.info/johnson-lyndon/2123/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=2123 You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered.




Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
(Attributed)

Widely attributed to Johnson, and in keeping with his reputation as a wily legislator, but no actual source found. ]]> https://wist.info/johnson-lyndon/2123/feed/ 0 2123 https://wist.info/bolt-robert/1013/ https://wist.info/bolt-robert/1013/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=1013 ROPER: So, now you’d give the Devil the benefit of law!

MORE: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

ROPER: Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that!

MORE: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you — where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast — Man’s laws, not God’s — and if you cut them down — and you’re just the man to do it — d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake.


Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, play, Act 1 (1960)
    (Source)

Bolt's 1966 film adaptation uses the same language, with slightly variant punctuation. As well, the film ends the scene here, where the play continues with further dialog. (Source (Video); dialog verified.) ]]> https://wist.info/bolt-robert/1013/feed/ 0 1013 https://wist.info/frankfurter-felix/1497/ https://wist.info/frankfurter-felix/1497/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=1497 The history of liberty is the history of the observances of procedural safeguards.

Felix Frankfurter (1882-1965) US Supreme Court Justice, jurist and teacher
McNabb v. United States (1943) ]]> https://wist.info/frankfurter-felix/1497/feed/ 0 1497 https://wist.info/emerson-ralph-waldo/158/ https://wist.info/emerson-ralph-waldo/158/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=158 Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey the laws too well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Politics,” Essays: Second Series (1844) ]]> https://wist.info/emerson-ralph-waldo/158/feed/ 0 158 https://wist.info/cicero-marcus-tullius/562/ https://wist.info/cicero-marcus-tullius/562/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=562 The safety of the people is the supreme law.

[Salus populi suprema lex esto.]


Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
De Legibus [On the Laws], Book 3, ch. 3 / sec. 8 (3.3/3.8) [Marcus] (c. 51 BC) [tr. Barham (1842)]
    (Source)

Cicero gives this in his outline of how government ought to be constituted, in particular how the consuls should have ultimate authority over the law and the army. (Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:



The safety of the people shall be their highest law.
[tr. Keyes (1928)]




The safety of the people shall be the highest law.
[tr. Rudd (1998)]




For them let the safety of the people be the highest law.
[tr. Zetzel (1999)]




Let the safety of the people be the highest law.
[tr. Fott (2013)]


Other, more general translations:
• "The good of the people is the chief law."
• "Let the welfare of the people be the ultimate law."
The phrase (in Latin) was used frequently during the Enlightenment as a core statement around the purpose of government, most famously in John Locke's Second Treatise,, ch. 13, sec. 158.

More information about this quote and its uses: Salus populi suprema lex esto - Wikipedia ]]> https://wist.info/cicero-marcus-tullius/562/feed/ 0 562 https://wist.info/talmud/1885/ https://wist.info/talmud/1885/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 18:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=1885 What is hateful to you, do not to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Go and study it.

[d’`alakh sani l’khaverkha la ta`avid. Zo hi kol hatora kulahh, v’idakh peirusha hu: zil g’mor]


The Talmud (AD 200-500) Collection of Jewish rabbinical writings
Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a (Rabbi Hillel)

(Noted elsewhere as tractate Shabbat 30a.) See also the Bible, Matthew 7:12. Alt. Trans.: "What is hateful to thee, do not unto thy fellow; this is the whole law. All the rest is a commentary to this law; go and learn it." ]]> https://wist.info/talmud/1885/feed/ 0 1885 https://wist.info/thoreau-henry-david/3854/ https://wist.info/thoreau-henry-david/3854/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=3854 What is wanted is men, not of policy, but of probity, — who recognize a higher law than the Constitution, or the decision of the majority. The fate of the country does not depend on how you vote at the polls, — the worst man is as strong as the best at that game; it does not depend on what kind of paper you drop into the ballot-box once a year, but on what kind of man you drop from your chamber into the street every morning.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Speech (1854-07-04), “Slavery in Massachusetts,” Anti-Slavery Celebration, Framingham, Massachusetts
    (Source)

After the conviction in Boston of Anthony Burns, under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. This led to large protests and an abolitionist riot at the Boston Courthouse, requiring Federal troops and state militia to ensure his transport to a ship sailing to Virginia. ]]> https://wist.info/thoreau-henry-david/3854/feed/ 0 3854 https://wist.info/montesquieu/2895/ https://wist.info/montesquieu/2895/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=2895 As useless laws weaken necessary laws, those that can be evaded weaken legislation.

[Comme les lois inutiles affaiblissent les lois nécessaires, celles qu’on peut éluder affaiblissent la législation.]


Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher
Spirit of Laws [The Spirit of the Laws; De l’esprit des lois], Book 29, ch. 16 (1748) [tr. Cohler/Miller/Stone (1989)]
    (Source)

(Source (French)). Other translations:



As useless laws debilitate such as are necessary, so those that may be easily eluded weaken the legislation.
[tr. Nugent (1750)]




As needless laws weaken necessary laws, laws that can be eluded weaken legislation.
[tr. Stewart (2018)]


Variant: "Useless laws weaken the necessary laws."

The same thought, that "Useless laws weaken necessary laws [Les loix inutiles affaiblissent celles qui sont les necessaires.]" also is recorded in his Pensées Diverses [Assorted Thoughts], # 630 / 1007 "General Maxims of Politics," No. 6 (1720-1755). Variant: "Les loix inutiles affaiblissent les necessaires."

Other translations of that work:



Useless laws debilitate such as are necessary.
[ed. Guterman (1963)]




Useless laws weaken necessary ones.
[tr. Clark (2012)]


]]> https://wist.info/montesquieu/2895/feed/ 0 2895 https://wist.info/hobbes-thomas/1774/ https://wist.info/hobbes-thomas/1774/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=1774 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). ]]> https://wist.info/hobbes-thomas/1774/feed/ 0 1774 https://wist.info/mann-abby/2659/ https://wist.info/mann-abby/2659/#comments Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=2659 HAYWOOD: There are those in our own country, too, who today speak of the protection of country, of survival. A decision must be made, in the life of every nation, at the very moment when the grasp of the enemy is at its throat, when it seems the only way to survive is to use the means of the enemy, to rest survival upon what is expedient. To look the other way. Only the answer to that is: Survival as what?

Abby Mann (1927-2008) American screenwriter, producer [a.k.a. Abraham Goodman, Ben Goodman]
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) ]]> https://wist.info/mann-abby/2659/feed/ 1 2659 https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/2078/ https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/2078/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=2078 Were I called upon to decide whether the people had best be omitted in the Legislative or Judiciary department, I would say it is better to leave them out of the Legislative. The execution of the laws is more important than the making them.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1789-07-19) to Abbé Arnoux
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/2078/feed/ 0 2078 https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/2094/ https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/2094/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=2094 A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen: but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property & all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1810-09-20) to John B. Colvin
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/2094/feed/ 0 2094 https://wist.info/rogers-will/3311/ https://wist.info/rogers-will/3311/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=3311 You can’t legislate intelligence and common sense into people.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1934-03-16) “Daily Telegram: Rogers Doubts We Want Insull Back Very Much”
    (Source)

The Will Rogers Museum also cites it as a quotation, but in a pair of sentences; the second sentence was not in this column:



You can’t legislate intelligence and common sense into people. You can’t broaden a man’s vision if he wasn’t born with one.


]]> https://wist.info/rogers-will/3311/feed/ 0 3311 https://wist.info/france-anatole/1480/ https://wist.info/france-anatole/1480/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=1480 The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.

Anatole France (1844-1924) French poet, journalist, novelist, Nobel Laureate [pseud. of Jaques-Anatole-François Thibault]
The Red Lily, ch. 7 (1884) ]]> https://wist.info/france-anatole/1480/feed/ 0 1480 https://wist.info/brandeis-louis/946/ https://wist.info/brandeis-louis/946/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=946 If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.

Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) American lawyer, activist, Supreme Court Justice (1916-39)
In Cleveland Plain Dealer (15 Oct 1912) ]]> https://wist.info/brandeis-louis/946/feed/ 0 946 https://wist.info/montaigne-michel-de/2894/ https://wist.info/montaigne-michel-de/2894/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=2894 There is no man so good that if he placed all his actions and thoughts under the scrutiny of the laws, he would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.

[Il n’est si homme de bien, qu’il mette à l’examen des loix toutes ses actions et pensées, qui ne soit pendable dix fois en sa vie.]


Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 3, ch. 9 (3.9), “Of Vanity [De la vanité]” (1587) [tr. Frame (1943)]
    (Source)

First appeared in the 1588 edition.

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:



No man is so exquisitely honest or upright in living, but brings all his actions and thoughts within compasse and danger of the lawes; and that tenne times in his life might not lawfully be hanged.
[tr. Florio (1603)]




There is no so good Man, that so squares all his Thoughts and Actions to the Laws, that he is not Faulty enough to deserve Hanging ten Times in his Life.
[tr. Cotton (1686)]




There is no so good man, who so squares all his thoughts and actions to the laws, that he is not faulty enough to deserve hanging ten times in his life.
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]




There does not exist a man of such worth that, were he to lay open to the scrutiny of the laws all his actions and thoughts, he would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.
[tr. Ives (1925)]




No man is so moral but that, if he submitted his deeds and thoughts to cross-examination by the laws, he would be found worthy of hanging on ten occasions in his lifetime.
[tr. Screech (1987)]


]]> https://wist.info/montaigne-michel-de/2894/feed/ 0 2894 https://wist.info/other/3655/ https://wist.info/other/3655/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=3655 The great atrocities of our civilization have rarely been the acts of generals or presidents or kings. They have been the doings of petty bureaucrats acting within the strict confines of the law.

(Other Authors and Sources)
Alain Simon ]]> https://wist.info/other/3655/feed/ 0 3655