Abraham Lincoln Quotes

It is a maxim of our municipal law, and, I believe, of universal law, that he who permits the end, permits of course the means, without which the end cannot be effected

I entirely differ with the Government as to the value of precedents. In this case, as in others, precedents are not mere dusty phrases, which do not substantially affect the question before us. A precedent embalms a principle.

It cannot be too clearly understood that this is not a free country, and it will be an evil day for the legal profession when it is.

Since no individual acting separately can lawfully use force to destroy the rights of others, does it not logically follow that the same principle also applies to the common force that is nothing more than the organized combination of the individual forces?

Bills of attainder, ex-post facto laws and laws impairing the obligation of contracts are contrary to the first principles of the social compact, and to every principle of sound legislation.

It is a principle that the right to a thing gives a right to the means without which it could not be used, that is to say, that the means follow their end.

The law is hard but it is the law.

Possession, they say, is eleven points of the law.

It is a general rule of Judgment, that a mischief should rather be admitted than an inconvenience.

That it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer, is a Maxim that has been long and generally approved.

Possession is eleven points in the law.

Necessity gives the law and does not itself receive it.

Ignorance of the law excuses no man.

Fiat justitia et ruant coeli. Let justice be done, though the heavens may fall. See Ferdinand I 320:1.

None shall take advantage of his own wrong.

Agnosticism is not properly described as a "negative" creed, nor indeed as a creed of any kind, except in so far as it expresses absolute faith in the validity of a principle which is as much ethical as intellectual.

The exception tests the rule.

Our behavior is governed by principles. Living in harmony with them brings positive consequences; violating them brings negative consequences.

All judges had rather that ten innocent should suffer than that one guilty should escape.

The only way I could be extradited is through the principle of what my lawyers call "politics trumps law."

A maxim in law has more weight in the world than an article of faith.

I understand that it is a maxim of law, that a poor plea may be a good plea to a bad declaration.

Principle I: Legal rights are presumptive rights.

It is better, saith the law, to suffer a mischief that is peculiar to one, than an inconvenience that may prejudice many.

You know the law, Dresden." "He who kills the cheer springs for beer," chanted the rest of the table.