“In America the law is king. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.”
Thomas Paine
Rule Of LawFreedom
Legal Quotes
200 FAMOUS QUOTES · LEGAL
Legal Quotes
Read the best legal quotes on law, justice, judges and lawyers from Cicero, Aristotle, Blackstone-era maxims, Shakespeare, Gandhi, Ambedkar, the Thirukkural and more.
“The most sacred of the duties of a government is to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens.”
Thomas Jefferson
EqualityGovernment
“It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.”
John Marshall
CourtsJudicial Review
“Justice, though due to the accused, is due to the accuser also.”
Benjamin Cardozo
FairnessVictims
“If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.”
Louis Brandeis
RespectLegal Reform
“Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example.”
Louis Brandeis
ExampleGovernment
“Jury, n. A number of persons appointed by a court to assist the attorneys in preventing law from degenerating into justice.”
Ambrose Bierce
JuriesFunny
“Now these are the Laws of the Jungle, and many and mighty are they; but the head and the hoof of the Law and the haunch and the hump is, Obey!”
Rudyard Kipling
ObediencePoetry
“Where there is righteousness, there is victory.”
The Mahabharata (Motto of the Supreme Court of India)
IndiaRighteousness
“That is no assembly where there are no elders; they are not elders who do not speak of what is right.”
The Mahabharata
CourageCounsel
“Punishment, when awarded with due consideration, makes the people devoted to righteousness and to works productive of wealth and enjoyment.”
Kautilya (Arthashastra)
PunishmentOrder
“The law does not fawn on the noble; the plumb line does not bend for the crooked.”
Han Feizi
EqualityRule Of Law
“Harmony is to be valued, and an avoidance of wanton opposition to be honoured.”
Prince Shotoku (Seventeen-Article Constitution)
HarmonyConstitution
“Wealth gained without justice, however profitable it seems, should be given up that very day.”
Thiruvalluvar
Honest WealthJustice
“When the mind forsakes justice and turns to wrong, know that ruin is near.”
Thiruvalluvar
WarningIntegrity
“The world will not regard as poverty the poverty of the just man who lives by virtue.”
Thiruvalluvar
IntegrityRespect
“The true merchant is one who guards the interests of others as carefully as his own.”
Thiruvalluvar
Business EthicsFairness
“The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.”
The Bible (Psalm 19:7)
FaithLaw
“O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.”
The Bible (Psalm 119:97)
DevotionLaw
“They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them.”
The Bible (Proverbs 28:4)
Rule Of LawCourage
“For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king.”
The Bible (Isaiah 33:22)
FaithAuthority
“On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
The Bible (Matthew 22:40)
LoveLaw
“Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?”
The Bible (John 7:51)
Fair HearingDue Process
“It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself.”
The Bible (Acts 25:16)
Due ProcessFair Trial
“These, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.”
The Bible (Romans 2:14)
ConscienceMorality