Law And Politics

"The golden rule is that there are no golden rules" G.B. Shaw

"Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few." G.B. Shaw

"Power ought to serve as a check to power." Montesquieu

"But constant experience show us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it." Montesquieu

"Useless laws weaken the necessary laws." Montesquieu

"There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice." Montesquieu

"In the state of nature....all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of the law." Montesquieu

"An injustice committed against anyone is a threat to everyone." Montesquieu

"Law should be like death, which spares no one." Montesquieu

"...When the laws have ceased to be executed, as this can only come from the corruption of the republic, the state is already lost." Montesquieu

"Never create by law what can be accomplished by morality." Montesquieu

"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him." Machiavelli

"Politics have no relations to morals." Machiavelli

"There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt." Machiavelli

"Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please." Machiavelli

"Government is necessary, not because man is naturally bad.... but because man is by nature more individualistic than social." Hobbes

"Humans are driven by a perpetual and restless desire of power." Hobbes

"Unnecessary laws are not good laws, but traps for money." Hobbes

"The passions of men are commonly more potent than their reason." Hobbes

"Ignorance of the law is no good excuse, where every man is bound to take notice of the laws to which he is subject." Hobbes

"The first and fundamental laws of Nature, which is, to seek peace and follow it." Hobbes

"There is no such thing as perpetual tranquility of mind while we live here; because life itself is but motion, and can never be without desire, nor without fear, no more than without sense." Hobbes

"The power of the lawyer is in the uncertainly of the law." Jeremy Bentham

"Lawyer are the only person in whom ignorance of the law is not punished." Jeremy Bentham

"Every law is an infraction of liberty. Tyranny and anarchy are never far apart." Jeremy Bentham

"It is vain to talk of the interest of the community, without understanding what is the interest of the individual." Jeremy Bentham

"All punishment is mischief; all punishment in itself is evil." Jeremy Bentham

"The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of law, where there is no law, there is no freedom." John Locke

"The discipline of desire is the background of character." John Locke

"All mankind.... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions." John Locke

"It is easier for a tutor to command than to teach." John Locke

"Things of the world are is so constant a flux, that nothing remains long in the same state." John Locke

"What a cage is to the wild beast, law is to the selfish man." Herbert Spencer

"Society exists for the benefit of its members, not the members for the benefit of society." Herbert Spencer