3,047 Quotes About Law

Those who believe that liberal democracy and the free market can be defended by the force of law and regulation alone, without an internalised sense of duty and morality, are tragically mistaken.

We’re raised to believe that if we do all the right things, the law will protect us. Reality is much harsher.

Law is the blunt instrument we use to hide our failure to create a properly educated, nurturing society. Give people what they want and they won’t need to steal from you. Reinforce peoples’ natural empathy and they will understand why not to hurt you. That won’t stop every crime of course – but it should stamp out around 99% of it.

Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour ... If at my convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?

Economists have their glories, but i do not believe that antitrust law is one of them.

My biggest problem with modernity may lie in the growing separation of the ethical and the legal

What is law? Is it what is on the books, or what is actually enacted and obeyed in a society? Or is law what must be enacted and obeyed, whether or not it is on the books, if things are to go right?

Yes, we've given them the benefit of the doubt. But, isn't it time (for once in our lives) to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt?

The answer is that there is no good answer. So as parents, as doctors, as judges, and as a society, we fumble through and make decisions that allow us to sleep at night--because morals are more important than ethics, and love is more important than law.