Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good
or for ill, it teaches the whole people by read more

Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good
or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is
contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds
contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto
himself; it invites anarchy.

Wretches hang that jurymen may dine.

Wretches hang that jurymen may dine.

Because just as good morals, if they are to be maintained, have need of the laws, so the laws, if read more

Because just as good morals, if they are to be maintained, have need of the laws, so the laws, if they are to be observed, have need of good morals.

The law is a strange thing. It makes a man swear to tell the truth, and every time he shows read more

The law is a strange thing. It makes a man swear to tell the truth, and every time he shows signs of doing so, some lawyer objects.

Your pettifoggers damn their souls,
To share with knaves in cheating fools.

Your pettifoggers damn their souls,
To share with knaves in cheating fools.

Where there are laws, he who has not broken them need not
tremble.
[It., Ove son leggi,
read more

Where there are laws, he who has not broken them need not
tremble.
[It., Ove son leggi,
Tremar non dee chi leggi non infranse.]

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg read more

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.

It is the trade of lawyers to question everything, yield nothing, and to talk by the hour.

It is the trade of lawyers to question everything, yield nothing, and to talk by the hour.

All this is but a web of the wit; it can work nothing.

All this is but a web of the wit; it can work nothing.