Written laws are like spiders' webs, and will like them only
entangle and hold the poor and weak, while read more

Written laws are like spiders' webs, and will like them only
entangle and hold the poor and weak, while the rich and powerful
will easily break through them.

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.

Is not the winding up witnesses,
And nicking, more than half the bus'ness?
For witnesses, like watches, read more

Is not the winding up witnesses,
And nicking, more than half the bus'ness?
For witnesses, like watches, go
Just as they're set, too fast or slow;
And where in Conscience they're strait-lac'd,
'Tis ten to one that side is cast.

Nothing travels faster than the speed of light, with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own set read more

Nothing travels faster than the speed of light, with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own set of laws.

The law must be stable and yet it must not stand still.

The law must be stable and yet it must not stand still.

…a few philosophers really do important work. This applies to the so called ‘critical philosophy’ and to the theory of read more

…a few philosophers really do important work. This applies to the so called ‘critical philosophy’ and to the theory of knowledge or epistemology. This class of workers I call epistemologists to avoid the disagreeable implications of the term ‘philosopher’.

Let us repeat the two crucial negative premises as established firmly by all human experience: (1) Words are not the read more

Let us repeat the two crucial negative premises as established firmly by all human experience: (1) Words are not the things we are speaking about; and (2) There is no such thing as an object in absolute isolation.

The law of England is the greatest grievance of the nation, very
expensive and dilatory.

The law of England is the greatest grievance of the nation, very
expensive and dilatory.

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching read more

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.