Plutarch Quotes
Solon being asked, namely, what city was best to live in. That city, he replied, in which those who are not wronged, no less than those who are wronged, exert themselves to punish the wrongdoers.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives. Translated by John Dryden, edited by Arthur Hugh Clough, vol. 1, Little, Brown, and Company, 1859, p. 185.
In England, the King was above the law. However, impeachment was a tool that could be used against his favorite ministers. In debating the United State Constitution one of the first questions to be determined was whether impeachment could be a tool used against the President or like, England, only the other government officials. Mason argued that the President must be included and his view prevailed. See also Benjamin Franklin: {642885}.
The article he wrote was the first serious plan and proposal to repeal Prohibition which was opposed by most people after the country had experienced the negative unintended consequents of making alcohol illegal. This was not unlike the second thoughts that many Americans began to develop regarding the War on Drugs at the end of the 20th century. Many felt the good that prohibition did (it improved the nation’s healt) was not worth the bad that came with it (crime, corruption, police brutality, disrespect for the law.)
Note that the two do NOT ALWAYS coincide. There are those who argue that law should be respected, right or wrong. There are also those who argue that law should be respected, only when it is in the right. Note also that “respect” and “obedience” are two different things. Some people argue that law and the courts and government must have respect. Others that they are only due obedience but not necessarily respect when they are in the wrong. Still others, like Thoreau, that obedience even is not required when the law is wrong. There are those who take this to the degree that obedience to a “wrong” law is wrong and there is a DUTY to disobey a wrong law. However, a more nuanced view does not treat all laws as the same importance. I may think a particular tax is unjust and wrong, but obedience does not necessarily have moral consequences. A law that says that people with a certain religion must not be hired, however, is sufficiently immoral that I am obliged to disobey it.
Plutarch (/ˈpluːtɑːrk/; Greek: Πλούταρχος, Ploútarchos; Koine Greek: [ˈplutarkʰos]; AD 46–after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo. He is known primarily for his Parallel Lives, a series of biographies of illustrious Greeks and Romans, and Moralia, a collection of essays and speeches. Upon becoming a Roman citizen, he was named Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (Λούκιος Μέστριος Πλούταρχος).
