Tacitus on laws and corruption

The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. 

~ Tacitus, historian

Calvin Coolidge on legislation

It's better to kill a bad law than to pass a good one.

~ Calvin Coolidge

Max Stirner on the difference between crime and the law

The State calls its own violence law, but that of the individual crime.

~ Max Stirner, The Ego and His Own [1845]

Cicero on the precepts of the law

The precepts of the law are these: to live honestly, to injure no one, and to give everyone else his due.

~ Cicero

Andrew Jackson on equality under the law and his veto of the recharter of the Bank of the United States

It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth cannot be produced by human institutions [but]... every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society... who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, confine itself to equal protection... it would be an unqualified blessing. In the act before me [to recharter the Bank of the United States] there seems to be a wide and unnecessary departure from these just principles.

~ Andrew Jackson, statement on his veto of the Bank of the United States

(Quoted by Robert Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Bank War, p. 83.)

Albert Einstein on unenforceable laws

Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.

~ Albert Einstein

Voltaire on the presumption of innocence

It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.

~ Voltaire, Zadig (1747)

T.B. MacAulay on Habeas Corpus

The most stringent curb that ever legislation imposed on tyranny.

~ T.B. MacAulay, commenting on Habeas Corpus, History of England, I (1848)

James Madison on laws

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.

~ James Madison

Frederic Bastiat on law vs. morality

When law and morality contradict each other the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his sense of morality or losing his respect for the law.

~ Frederic Bastiat

John Dillon on the role of constitutions and laws

Constitutions are made to restrain Government. Laws are made to restrain Persons.

~ John Dillon, Notes on Historical Evidence in Relation to Adverse Theories of the Origin and Nature of the Government of the United States of America (1871)

Ayn Rand on government making criminals out of innocent men

There is no way to rule innocent men. The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

~ Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (1957)

Frederic Bastiat on the proper functions of government

A science of economics must be developed before a science of politics can be logically formulated. Essentially, economics is the science of determining whether the interests of human beings are harmonious or antagonistic. This must be known before a science of politics can be formulated to determine the proper functions of government. Immediately following the development of a science of economics, and at the very beginning of the formulation of a science of politics, this all-important question must be answered: What is law? What ought it to be? What is its scope; its limits? Logically, at what point do the just powers of the legislator stop? I do not hesitate to answer: Law is the common force organized to act as an obstacle to injustice. In short, law is justice."

~ Frédéric Bastiat

Lao Tzu and laws and security

The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.

~ Lao Tzu, 6th century BC poet and father of Taoism