Charlton Heston Quotes

Good laws make it easier to do right and harder to do wrong.

The principal end a prince was made for is to take care, that every one should have his rights. This ought to engage him to study not only the science of those great civilians, who ascend to the first principles of law, which regulate human society, and are the basis as it were of government and politics; but also that part of the law, which descends to the affairs of particular persons. This branch is generally left for the gentlemen of the long robe, and not admitted into the education of princes, though they are every day to pass judgment upon the fortunes, liberties, lives, honor, and reputation of their subjects. Princes are continually talked to of valour and liberality; but if justice do not regulate these two qualities, they degenerate into the most odious vices. Without justice valour does nothing but destroy; and liberality is only a foolish profuseness. Justice keeps all in order, and contains within bounds him, who distributes it, as well as those, to whom it is distributed.

The law exists to express our values.

I established law and justice in the land.

The superior man governs men, according to their nature, with what is proper to them, and as soon as they change what is wrong, he stops.

Justice remains the greatest power on earth. To that tremendous power alone will we submit.

Fairness and justice will be the base of my government.

The law, that is what makes men stay honest.

A good leader must be fair.

Good morals lead to good laws.

In vain, without the Bible, we increase penal laws and draw entrenchments around our institutions.

We have one authority and one law and everyone has the responsibility to follow that law and that authority.

The law, in our case, seems to make the right; and the very reverse ought to be done - the right should make the law.

Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.

Justice is the first virtue of those who command, and stops the complaints of those who obey.

An awful lot of fantasy, and even some great fantasy, falls into the mistake of assuming that a good man will be a good king, that all that is necessary is to be a decent human being and when you're king everything will go swimmingly.

In civilized life, law floats in a sea of ethics.

The criterion of constitutionality is not whether we believe the law to be for the public good.

In civilized life, law floats in a sea of ethics. Each is indispensable to civilization. Without law, we should be at the mercy of the least scrupulous; without ethics, law could not exist.

It is impossible to design a constitution that is so perfect that no one has to be good.

Albania under law is the motto that leads our vision.

The foundation for moral leadership is the truth.

Not parties, but principles.

There is no king where there is no law.

We cannot legislate morality. No, and we cannot legislate loyalty, for loyalty is a kind of morality. We cannot produce these things by decrees or commissions or public inquisitions.