There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies as against despots. What is it? Distrust. (Demosthenes)
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.
(Franklin)
When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic. (Franklin)
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty. (Franklin)
The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. (Franklin)
. . . a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles . . . is absolutely necessary to preserve the blessings of liberty and keep a government free. (Franklin)
This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize [their] rights . . . cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins. (Franklin)
The spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without. It has to come from within. (Gandhi)
The spirit of democracy cannot be established in the midst of terrorism, whether governmental or popular. (Gandhi)
Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. (Goering)
The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment. (Hutchins)
As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. (Mencken),1920
A good politician under democracy is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar. (Mencken)
It is not the fact of liberty but the way in which liberty is exercised that ultimately determines whether liberty itself survives. (Thompson)
So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men. (Voltaire)
Democracy is the Tinkerbell of political systems. If you do not believe in her, she cannot exist. (Zacharia)
About Me
- Dr. Z
- is a practicing orthopaedic surgeon who regularly writes political and medical political articles. He chairs the Editorial Board of his County Medical Association periodical.
Showing posts with label Wisdom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wisdom. Show all posts
3/10/07
LAW WISDOM
Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man.(Adams)
The defendant wants to hide the truth because he's generally guilty. The defense attorney's job is to make sure the jury does not arrive at that truth. (Dershowitz)
I know of no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution." (U.S. Grant)
In law it is a good policy to never plead what you need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you cannot. (Lincoln)
The law is a sort of hocus-pocus science, that smiles in yer face while it picks yer pocket: and the glorious uncertainty of it is of more use to the professors than the justice of it. (Macklin)
Who thinks the law has anything to do with justice? It's what we have because we can't have justice. (McIlvanney)
Law students are trained in the case method, and to the lawyer everything in life looks like a case. (Packard)
Law is experience developed by reason and applied continually to further experience. (R. Pound)
If he who breaks the law is not punished, he who obeys it is cheated. This, and this alone, is why lawbreakers ought to be punished: to authenticate as good, and to encourage as useful, law-abiding behavior. The aim of criminal law cannot be correction or deterrence; it can only be the maintenance of the legal order. (Szasz)
The law is like the killy-loo bird, a creature that insisted on flying backward because it didn't care where it was going but was mightily interested in where it had been. (Rodell)
". . . in the eye of the law; for the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction. . ." "If the law supposes that, the law is a ass- a idiot. If that's the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience- by experience." (Mr. Bumble)
The Law is not Justice. The definition of Justice varies by the time, place, situation and culture. The Law should be a best effort process that is most likely to result in Justice based on experience, the known past and the foreseeable future. (Zacharia)
Authority is a transient honor lent by consensus to those deemed worthy. It is a volatile privilege the burden of which is continual revalidation. (Zacharia)
The defendant wants to hide the truth because he's generally guilty. The defense attorney's job is to make sure the jury does not arrive at that truth. (Dershowitz)
I know of no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution." (U.S. Grant)
In law it is a good policy to never plead what you need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you cannot. (Lincoln)
The law is a sort of hocus-pocus science, that smiles in yer face while it picks yer pocket: and the glorious uncertainty of it is of more use to the professors than the justice of it. (Macklin)
Who thinks the law has anything to do with justice? It's what we have because we can't have justice. (McIlvanney)
Law students are trained in the case method, and to the lawyer everything in life looks like a case. (Packard)
Law is experience developed by reason and applied continually to further experience. (R. Pound)
If he who breaks the law is not punished, he who obeys it is cheated. This, and this alone, is why lawbreakers ought to be punished: to authenticate as good, and to encourage as useful, law-abiding behavior. The aim of criminal law cannot be correction or deterrence; it can only be the maintenance of the legal order. (Szasz)
The law is like the killy-loo bird, a creature that insisted on flying backward because it didn't care where it was going but was mightily interested in where it had been. (Rodell)
". . . in the eye of the law; for the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction. . ." "If the law supposes that, the law is a ass- a idiot. If that's the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience- by experience." (Mr. Bumble)
The Law is not Justice. The definition of Justice varies by the time, place, situation and culture. The Law should be a best effort process that is most likely to result in Justice based on experience, the known past and the foreseeable future. (Zacharia)
Authority is a transient honor lent by consensus to those deemed worthy. It is a volatile privilege the burden of which is continual revalidation. (Zacharia)
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