William Godwin Quotes

They had to make their own laws in accordance with the necessities of time, and circumstances, the state of affairs, and the experience of judges.

Well, I always say the law was meant to be interpreted in a lenient manner. And that's what I try to do, is sometimes I lean to one side of it, sometimes I lean to the other.

Law and justice are not always the same.

History or custom or social utility or some compelling sense of justice or sometimes perhaps a semi-intuitive apprehension of the pervading spirit of our law must come to the rescue of the anxious judge and tell him where to go.

The judge is not the knight-errant, roaming at will in pursuit of his own ideal of beauty or of goodness.

Justice is the object of government, and those who support the government, must be agreed as to the justice to be executed by it, or they cannot rightfully unite in maintaining the government itself.

We must never lose sight of the fact that the law has a moral foundation, and we must never fail to ask ourselves not only what the law is, but what the law should be.

Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.

The law is bigger than money - but only if the law works hard enough.

There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men.

The glorious uncertainty of the law was a thing well known and complained of, by all ignorant people, but all learned gentleman considered it as its greatest excellency.

It is a maxim among these lawyers, that whatever hath been done before, may legally be done again: and therefore they take special care to record all the decisions formerly made against common justice and the general reason of mankind.

Expedience, not justice, is the rule of contemporary American law.

We as a Congress have a moral obligation to bring justice to the families of these victims. Furthermore, as a society based on laws, we have a responsibility to ensure that criminals don't go unpunished.

In general, we as police officers - at least the good police officers - like to look at each situation case by case and always pay close attention to the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law.

It seems to me that an unjust law is no law at all.

'Fairness' can be an important quality for legislators to consider when they are passing public policies. But it is a subjective standard. And it has no place among judges on a court - whose duty is to dispassionately judge a law's constitutionality.

Justice, sir, is the great interest of man on earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together.

Citizenship in a diverse society means living with our deepest differences and committing ourselves to work for public policies that are in the best interest of all individuals, families, communities and our nation.

The job of a justice is justice.

Law is that which commands what is right and prohibits what is wrong.

It is very important to know the law, but it is more important to know the judge

In a civilized society, all crimes are likely to be sins, but most sins are not and ought not to be treated as crimes.

The law has to be, in part, a teacher.

He made you king to do justice and righteousness.