Lysander Spooner Quotes

I'm always curious how we sometimes have a different point of view when it comes to justice. And that's why people root for 'Dexter.'

Stripped of ethical rationalizations and philosophical pretensions, a crime is anything that a group in power chooses to prohibit.

The criminal law tries to define moral standards.

The only power any 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.

Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government; they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or bad.

People are, well, only human. We know that. The rule of law is borne out in identifying, condemning, and punishing those who violate the standards on which we all agree. This is exactly what we do in America.

It ain't no sin if you crack a few laws now and then, just so long as you don't break any.

What is crime among the multitude is only vice among the few.

When is conduct a crime, and when is a crime not a crime? When somebody up there—a monarch, a dictator, a Pope, a legislator—so decrees.

Conscience and public opinion enforce the laws. The police suppress the exceptions.

The gap between being a bad person and being a criminal is often wide.

We have hardly an adequate idea how all-powerful law is in forming public opinion, in giving tone and character to the mass of society.

That man is a creature who needs order yet yearns for change is the creative contradiction at the heart of the laws which structure his conformity and define his deviancy.

No tendency is quite so strong in human nature as the desire to lay down rules of conduct for other people.

Crime takes the pulse of a culture. It tells us the truth about us as a species.

As a lawyer, as a private citizen, you see a lot of injustice. You see a lot of people who should have been punished and are not, and people who were punished wrongfully are not vindicated. Fiction is sort of a way to set the record straight, and let people at least believe that justice can be achieved and the right outcomes can occur.

Man is unique in creation because he has a sense of justice and truth. We spend billions of dollars each year to set up court systems to see that justice is done, and we build prisons for those who transgress the laws we enact.

There is one, and only one, thing in modern society more hideous than crime - namely, repressive justice.

I know not whether Laws be right, Or whether Laws be wrong; All that we know who lie in gaol…

You must legislate morality.

You don't know what the [ethical] rules are until the gallows pull up in front of your door and they drag you out to hang you.

In America the geography is sublime, but the men are not.

The Puritan hated bearbaiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

Good laws derive from evil habits.

If we started prosecuting people for sin, we’d all be in jail.