Hubert Humphrey Quotes

Laws that do not embody public opinion can never be enforced.

Any law that takes hold of a man’s daily life cannot prevail in a community, unless the vast majority of the community are actively in favor of it.

Law is nothing unless close behind it stands a warm, living public opinion.

A fair question could be posed in this fashion: If people are not obeying existing laws, what makes us think they would obey any new laws?

Laws can only be as effective as the willingness of people to obey them.

...no country can be well governed unless its citizens as a body keep religiously before their minds that they are the guardians of the law and that the law officers are only the machinery for its execution, nothing more.

We have a society now where obedience to the law is really a choice, an option only.

We are a nation of laws, and breaking those laws have consequences.

My business is that of every other good citizen - to uphold the law.

Society is well governed when its people obey the magistrates, and the magistrates obey the law.

In any society that is governed by the rule of law, some form of morality is always imposed. It's inescapable.

Law without education is a dead letter. With education the needed law follows without effort and, of course, with power to execute itself; indeed, it seems to execute itself.

Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on.

Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.

Every society, all government, and every kind of civil compact therefore, is or ought to be, calculated for the general good and safety of the community.

I've always thought if we don't want to enforce laws on the books, we should remove them from the books. But when you have laws, you breed contempt if you don't enforce them.

It certainly makes no sense to enact more laws if we cannot, or do not, enforce the ones we have.

I would uphold the law if for no other reason but to protect myself.

It is the duty of a citizen not only to observe the law but to let it be known that he is opposed to its violation.

Courts are all that stand between us and anarchy.

The highest test of a people's fitness for free institutions is their willingness to obey law.

There is an international law just as there has always been a law against theft, but because the thief gets away with his booty at times is no reason why we should say that the law against theft has been abrogated.

If there be no officer to enforce the Law, of what avail is the judge?

Any law enforcement authority can only be of value if the people support the law enforcement authority.

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