In a democracy--even if it is a so-called democracy like our white-élitist one--the greatest veneration one can show the rule of ...law is to keep a watch on it, and to reserve the right to judge unjust laws and the subversion of the function of the law by the power of the state. That vigilance is the most important proof of respect for the law.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Laws ... proportionate and mild should never be dispensed with. Let mercy be the character of the law-giver, but let the judge be ...a mere machine.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I love those historians that are either very simple or most excellent.... Such as are between both (which is the most common fashi...on), it is they that spoil all; they will needs chew our meat for us and take upon them a law to judge, and by consequence to square and incline the story according to their fantasy.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
To throw obstacles in the way of a complete education is like putting out the eyes; to deny the rights of property is like cutting... off the hands. To refuse political equality is like robbing the ostracized of all self-respect, of credit in the market place, of recompense in the world of work, of a voice in choosing those who make and administer the law, a choice in the jury before whom they are tried, and in the judge who decides their punishment.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I do not believe in lawyers, in that mode of attacking or defending a man, because you descend to meet the judge on his own ground..., and, in cases of the highest importance, it is of no consequence whether a man breaks a human law or not. Let lawyers decide trivial cases.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Whoever can discern truth has received his commission from a higher source than the chiefest justice in the world who can discern ...only law. He finds himself constituted judge of the judge. Strange that it should be necessary to state such simple truths!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There should be a law that no ordinary newspaper should be allowed to write about art. The harm they do by their foolish and rando...m writing it would be impossible to overestimate--not to the artist but to the public.... Without them we would judge a man simply by his work; but at present the newspapers are trying hard to induce the public to judge a sculptor, for instance, never by his statues but by the way he treats his wife; a painter by the amount of his income and a poet by the colour of his necktie.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »