Laws

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. -- Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

It's strange that men should take up crime when there are so many legal ways to be dishonest. -- Sunshine magazine

Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us. -- Justice William O. Douglas

Let no guilty man escape. -- U. S. Grant

There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible to live without breaking laws. -- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison. -- Henry David Thoreau

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. -- Plato (427-347 B.C.)

Aim and object of the law and lawyers was to defeat justice. -- Mark Twain

Oh wearisome condition of humanity! Born under one law, to another bound. -- Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke

lines about moral failure in the face of the Holocaust: 'First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left to stand up for me.' First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left to stand up for me. -- Martin Niemöller (Niemoller)

Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph. -- Haile Selassie (?)

Of all the strange "crimes" that human beings have legislated out of nothing, "blasphemy" is the most amazing -- with "obscenity" and "indecent exposure" fighting it out for second and third place. -- Robert A. Heinlein, Notebooks of Lazarus

Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made. -- Otto von Bismarck

Why does New Jersey have more toxic waste dumps and California have more lawyers? New Jersey had first choice.

In the Halls of Justice the only justice is in the halls. -- Lenny Bruce

Larkinson's Law: All laws are basically false.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. - U.S. Bill of Rights, 1st Amendment

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. - U.S. Bill of Rights, 4th Amendment

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. -- Amendment IX

"We endow government with tremendous power -- power to arrest you, take away your property, take away your life, destroy your reputation, take your children away from you," ... "I think those powers in the hands of human beings, acting under pressure, with the best of intentions, facing time deadlines in a world of limited resources, those kinds of powers need to be surrounded with a thicket of rules." -- James X. Dempsey, as quoted in In the Name of Homeland Security, Telecom Firms Are Deluged With Subpoenas by Miles Benson

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. -- Voltaire

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 is 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 must do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn. -- Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

It is one thing to praise discipline, and another to submit to it. -- Cervantes

Who will watch the watchmen. (Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes.) -- Juvenal, circa 128 AD

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