Hannah Arendt Quotes

Rule of law is the most important element in any civil society.

Society cannot exist without law. Law is the bond of society: that which makes it, that which preserves it and keeps it together. It is, in fact, the essence of civil society.

When those who uphold the law are strong, the state is strong. When they are weak, the state is weak

Law is just one public institution, but it is a cornerstone of society. When law goes, everything goes.

You can't build a society without law.

The rule of law bakes no bread, it is unable to distribute loaves or fishes (it has none), and it cannot protect itself against external assault, but it remains the most civilized and least burdensome conception of a state yet to be devised.

There can be no prosperity without law and order.

Mankind can live free in a society hemmed in by laws, but we have yet to find a historical example of mankind living free in lawless anarchy.

I don't want to have anything to do with the government. And yet if we don't have any regulations, there goes civilization, there goes security, and there goes protecting you against what people are going to sell you.

Law in general is human reason, inasmuch as it governs all the inhabitants of the earth: the political and civil laws of each nation ought to be only the particular cases in which human reason is applied.

There can be no liberty without the law.

Societies cannot move forward without law, and our constitution is the cornerstone of the law and our National Assembly is its umbrella and fortress.

The government has a responsibility to protect society, to help maintain society. That's why we have laws... The rule of law creates a set of standards for our behavior.

Law is the essential foundation of stability and order both within societies and in international relations.

Societies depend on agreed rules.

I should see an enemy of my country in any one who would change by force that which has been established by law.

Civilization is built on a number of ultimate principles... respect for human life, the punishment of crimes against property and persons, the equality of all good citizens before the law... or, in a word justice.

Laws fixed, certain, and uniform, are said to be the distinguishing traits of civilized from savage communities. In these last, seldom are any laws, unless it be the arbitrary and uncertain will of the strongest.

Courts are all that stand between us and anarchy.

Laws and institutions require to be adapted, not to good men, but to bad

The first duty of law is to keep sound the society it serves

Liberty—liberty within the law—and civilization are inseparable.

Where there is no law, there is no freedom.

Those who challenge the law in one or another of its aspects weaken the whole legal structure of society. For one man to disobey a law he does not like is to invite others to disobey another law which he may regard as indispensable to his own livelihood - or life.

The rule of law is crucial to a civilized society - so we should go out of our way to uphold and strengthen it to the extent possible.