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In this section, you'll find quotations and proverbs about the following topics: law, laws, constitution, lawyers, attorney, attorneys, jury, juries, jurors, court, courts, trial, trials, magistrate, magistrates, judge, judges, precedent, precedents, amnesty, pardon, forgive, forgiving, forgiveness, remit, remitment, acquit, acquittal, impunity, punish, punishment, punishments, sentence, condemn, convict, penalty, penalties, hangman, executioner, retaliation, retribution, retributions, revenge, revenges, and retaliations. Check out our Quotes on Professions and Skills for sayings on judges and lawyers, or our main page for more high quality quotations on other subjects and categories.
Never ask pardon before you are accused. Proverb
Much law, but little justice. Proverb
If a man deceives me once, shame on him; if he deceives me twice, shame on me. Italian proverb
Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein. The Bible, Proverbs, 26, 27
Adam's Apple, n. A protuberance in the throat of a man, thoughtfully provided by Nature to keep the rope in place. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Adam's Apple
Amnesty, n. The state's magnanimity to those offenders whom it would be too expensive to punish. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Amnesty
Forgiveness, n. A stratagem to throw an offender off his guard and catch him red-handed in his next offense. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Forgiveness
Hangman, n. An officer who produces suspended animation. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Hangman
Inadmissible, adj. Not competent to be considered. Said of certain kinds of testimony which juries are supposed to be unfit to be entrusted with, and which judges, therefore, rule out, even of proceedings before themselves alone. [...] Under the rules of evidence as they now exist in this country, no single assertion in the Bible has in its support any evidence admissible in a court of law. It cannot be proved that the battle of Blenheim ever was fought, that there was such a person as Julius Caesar, such an empire as Assyria.
But as records of courts of justice are admissible, it can easily be proved that powerful and malevolent magicians once existed and were a scourge to mankind. The evidence (including confession) upon which certain women were convicted of witchcraft and executed was without a flaw; it is still unimpeachable. [...] Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Inadmissible
Jury, n. A number of persons appointed by a court to assist the attorneys in preventing law from degenerating into justice. [...] Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Jury
Magistrate, n. A judicial officer of limited jurisdiction and unbounded incapacity. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Magistrate
Pardon, v. To remit a penalty and restore to a life of crime. To add to the lure of crime the temptation of ingratitude. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Pardon
Precedent, n. In law, a previous decision, rule or practice which, in the absence of a definite statute, has whatever force and authority a Judge may choose to give it, thereby greatly simplifying his task of doing as he pleases. As there are precedents for everything, he has only to ignore those that make against his interest and accentuate those in the line of his desire. Invention of the precedent elevates the trial-at-law from the low estate of a fortuitous ordeal to the noble attitude of a dirigible arbitrament. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Precedent
Revenge, n. Sending your girl's love letters to your rival after he has married her. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Revenge
Rope, n. An obsolescent appliance for reminding assassins that they too are mortal. It is put about the neck and remains in place one's whole life long. It has been largely superseded by a more complex electrical device worn upon another part of the person; and this is rapidly giving place to an apparatus known as the preachment. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Rope
Satan, n. One of the Creator's lamentable mistakes, repented in sashcloth and axes. Being instated as an archangel, Satan made himself multifariously objectionable and was finally expelled from Heaven. Halfway in his descent he paused, bent his head in thought a moment and at last went back. "There is one favor that I should like to ask," said he.
"Name it."
"Man, I understand, is about to be created. He will need laws."
"What, wretch! you his appointed adversary, charged from the dawn of eternity with hatred of his soul - you ask for the right to make his laws?"
"Pardon; what I have to ask is that he be permitted to make them himself."
It was so ordered. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Satan
Trial, n. A formal inquiry designed to prove and put upon record the blameless characters of judges, advocates and jurors. In order to effect this purpose it is necessary to supply a contrast in the person of one who is called the defendant, the prisoner, or the accused. If the contrast is made sufficiently clear this person is made to undergo such an affliction as will give the virtuous gentlemen a comfortable sense of their immunity, added to that of their worth. In our day the accused is usually a human being, or a socialist, but in medieval times, animals, fishes, reptiles and insects were brought to trial. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary, s. v. Trial
I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution. U. S. Grant, Inaugural Address, 4 March 1869
Men are not hanged for stealing horses, but that horses may not be stolen. G. S. Halifax, 1st Marquis of, Political Thoughts and Reflections of Punishment
Wisdom has taught us to be calm and meek, To take one blow, and turn the other cheek; It is not written what a man shall do If the rude caitiff smite the other too.O. W. Holmes, Non-Resistance
Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all.H. W. Longfellow, Retribution (translation from von Logau)
I must not only punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong. E. A. Poe, The Cask of Amontillado
There is a higher law than the Constitution. W. H. Seward, Speech, US Senate, 11 March 1850
I not deny The jury, passing on the prisoner's life, May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two Guiltier than him they try.W. Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, 2, 1, 17
The robb'd that smiles steals something from the thief.W. Shakespeare, Othello, 1, 3, 208
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