Law quotes

Law

9.3K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.

9.3K quotes

Explore further

Browse quotes that often appear alongside law — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.

Quote collection

Law quotes (page 21 of 467)

Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.

Victor Hugo Novelist, Poet
Law

"The guillotine is the ultimate expression of Law, and its name is vengeance; it is not neutral, nor does it allow us to remain neutral."

Read quote 20 likes
Thomas Jefferson Politician, Founding Father
Law

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse in any country. If it were, the laws would lose their effect, because it can always be pretended."

Read quote 20 likes
Slavoj Žižek Philosopher, Cultural Critic
Law

"What Americans don't want to admit ... is that not only is there not a contradiction between state regulation and freedom, but in order for us to actually be free in our social interactions, there must be an extremely elaborated network of health, law, institutions, moral rules and so on."

Read quote 20 likes
Oscar Wilde Writer
Law

"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful."

Read quote 20 likes
Florynce Kennedy Civil Rights Activist
Law

"It's interesting to speculate how it developed that in two of the most anti-feminist institutions, the church and the law court, the men are wearing the dresses."

Read quote 20 likes
Frederick Douglass Social Reformer, Writer
Law

"The marriage institution cannot exist among slaves, and one sixth of the population of democratic America is denied it's privileges by the law of the land. What is to be thought of a nation boasting of its liberty, boasting of it's humanity, boasting of its Christianity, boasting of its love of justice and purity, and yet having within its own borders three millions of persons denied by law the right of marriage?"

Read quote 20 likes
Law

"It is a sexual violation. It’s disgusting. The law needs to be changed, and we need to change. That’s why these Web sites are responsible. Just the fact that somebody can be sexually exploited and violated, and the first thought that crosses somebody’s mind is to make a profit from it. It’s so beyond me. I just can’t imagine being that detached from humanity. I can’t imagine being that thoughtless and careless and so empty inside."

Read quote 20 likes
Joseph Hume Politician
Law

"Destroy or take away the employment and wages of those artisans - which the corn laws in a great measure do - and you will, ere long, render the land in Great Britain of as little value as it is in other countries."

Read quote 20 likes
Joseph Stalin Politician, Revolutionary
Law

"In the U.S.S.R. anti-semitism is punishable with the utmost severity of the law as a phenomenon deeply hostile to the Soviet system. Under U.S.S.R. law active anti-semites are liable to the death penalty."

Read quote 20 likes
Martin Luther Theologian
Law

"But Satan, the god of all dissension, stirreth up daily new sects, and last of all (which of all other I should never have foreseen or once suspected) he hath raised up a sect of such as teach that the Ten Commandments ought to be taken out of the church, and that men should not be terrified with the law, but gently exerted by the preaching of the grace of Christ."

Read quote 20 likes
Prince Musician, Singer, Songwriter
Law

"There's this thing called compulsory licensing law that allows artists through the record companies to take your music at will without your permission."

Read quote 19 likes
Benjamin Harrison Politician
Law

"If the educated and influential classes in a community either practice or connive at the systematic violation of laws that seem to them to cross their convenience, what can they expect when the lesson that convenience or a supposed class interest is a sufficient cause for lawlessness has been well learned by the ignorant classes?"

Read quote 19 likes
Benjamin Harrison Politician
Law

"The evil works from a bad center both ways. It demoralizes those who practice it and destroys the faith of those who suffer by it in the efficiency of the law as a safe protector"

Read quote 19 likes
Deepak Chopra Author, Speaker
Law

"The first spiritual law of success is the Law of Pure Potentiality. This law is based on the fact that we are, in our essential state, pure consciousness. Pure consciousness is pure potentiality; it is the field of all possibilities and infinite creativity. Pure consciousness is our spiritual essence. Being infinite and unbounded, it is also pure joy. Other attributes of consciousness are pure knowledge, infinite silence, perfect balance, invincibility, simplicity, and bliss. This is our essential nature. Our essential nature is one of pure potentiality."

Read quote 19 likes
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Theologian
Law

"It is the fellowship of the Cross to experience the burden of the other. If one does not experience it, the fellowship he belongs to is not Christian. If any member refuses to bear that burden, he denies the law of Christ."

Read quote 19 likes
Ayn Rand Philosopher, Novelist
Law

"Under the antitrust laws, a man becomes a criminal from the moment he goes into business, no matter what he does. If he complies with one of these laws, he faces criminal prosecution under several others. For instance, if he charges prices which some bureaucrats judge as too high, he can be prosecuted for monopoly or for a successful 'intent to monopolize'; if he charges prices lower than those of his competitors, he can be prosecuted for 'unfair competition' or 'restraint of trade'; and if he charges the same prices as his competitors, he can be prosecuted for 'collusion' or 'conspiracy.'"

Read quote 19 likes
Thomas Jefferson Politician, Founding Father
Law

"[The purpose of a written constitution is] to bind up the several branches of government by certain laws, which, when they transgress, their acts shall become nullities; to render unnecessary an appeal to the people, or in other words a rebellion, on every infraction of their rights, on the peril that their acquiescence shall be construed into an intention to surrender those rights."

Read quote 19 likes