Visigoths Quotes

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

He made you king to do justice and righteousness.

But the relationship of morality and power is a very subtle one. Because ultimately power without morality is no longer power.

One with the law is a majority.

In order to be respected, authority has got to be respectable.

May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.

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

Every lawsuit results from somebody doing something wrong. If everybody did right, we wouldn't need laws.

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

Ye must hear them and obey their orders: it is on them to be just and good, and on you to be obedient and submissive.

'Was I not born in the realm? Were my parents born in any foreign country? Is not my kingdom here? Whom have I oppressed? Whom have I enriched to another's harm? What turmoil have I made in this commonwealth that I should be suspected to have no regard to the same? How have I governed since my reign?

All kings that are not tyrants, or perjured, will be glad to bound themselves within the limits of their laws.

Shall any man be above justice? Above all shall that man be above it, who can commit the most extensive injustice?

From this window we see the palace where the King is misled by perfidious counsels. Terror and fear have often issued from yon palace: let them return to-day in the name of the law, and let all those who inhabit that palace know that the King is alone inviolable, that the law will strike down the guilty without respect of persons, and that there is not a guilty head which can escape its sword.

If a great multitude of men should call one of their number King, unless this instituted Prince, appear in greater visible splendor then others, can reward those that obey and please him, and do the contrary to others; his Institution signifies little, even although he chance to have greater corporal or mental faculties, than any other of the number

An Unjust Decree, or an Unjust Interpretation of the Law, Prompted by Fear of the Throne, or Made by Order of the King, shall be Invalid.

I would rather have a Scot come from Scotland to govern the people of this kingdom well and justly than that you should govern them ill in the sight of all the world

To govern the state by law is to praise the right and blame the wrong.

I have told you already a hundred times: You are not a King and yet you have no idea how to be one …. All your difficulties and anxieties come from your own bad administration and because you have never paid any attention to my advice. I shall always regret having given you a kingdom where you have merely profited from the reputation of my name

In our society, authority derives from justice, and in our society, learning to live with authority should derive from and aid learning to understand and to feel justice.

There will always be a rule. There will be people who break the rules. There will be consequences. We fundamentally think these things will be true for a time. The question becomes, What are the consequences? Who enforces the consequences? What are the worst consequences?

I'm a law-and-order girl: I like people who do the right thing.

When you know the law, you're above the law. When you break the law, you're under the law.

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

Whoever imposes severe punishment becomes repulsive to the people; while he who awards mild punishment becomes contemptible. But whoever imposes punishment as deserved becomes respectable. For punishment when awarded with due consideration, makes the people devoted to righteousness and to works productive of wealth and enjoyment; while punishment, when ill-awarded under the influence of greed and anger or owing to ignorance, excites fury even among hermits and ascetics dwelling in forests, not to speak of householders.