A government of laws and not of men. Adams published articles in 1774 in the Boston Massachusetts Gazette using the pseudonym Novanglus. In this paper he credited James Harrington with expressing the idea this way. Harrington described government as the empire of laws and not of men in his 1656 work The Commonwealth of Oceana p. 35 (1771). The phrase gained wider currency when Adams used it in the Massachusetts Constitution Bill of Rights article 30 (1780).Works vol. 4 p. 230.
One a robot may not injure a human being or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm; Two a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; Three a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
The liberty of man consists solely in this: that he obeys natural laws because he has himself recognized them as such and not because they have been externally imposed upon him by any extrinsic will whatever divine or human collective or individual.
Law is justice. And it is under the law of justice under the reign of right; under the influence of liberty safety stability and responsibility that every person will attain his real worth and the true dignity of his being. It is only under this law of justice that mankind will achieve slowly no doubt but certainly God?s design for the orderly and peaceful progress of humanity.
The law is not a light for you or any man to see by; the law is not an instrument of any kind. The law is a causeway upon which so long as he keeps to it a citizen may walk safely.
I am glad I am an optimist. The pessimist is half-licked before he starts. The optimist has won half the battle the most important half that applies to himself when he begins his approach to a subject with the proper mental attitude. The optimist may not understand or if he understands he may not agree with prevailing ideas; but he believes yes knows that in the long run and in due course there will prevail whatever is right and best.
Solon used to say that speech was the image of actions; … that laws were like cobwebs for that if any trifling or powerless thing fell into them they held it fast; while if it were something weightier it broke through them and was off.
No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my own constitution; the only wrong what is against it.
It is almost impossible systematically to constitute a natural moral law. Nature has no principles. She furnishes us with no reason to believe that human life is to be respected. Nature in her indifference makes no distinction between good and evil.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly while bad people will find a way around the laws.
The law is the expression of the will of the strongest for the time being and therefore laws have no fixity but shift from generation to generation.
Law: An ordinance of reason for the common good made by him who has care of the community.
The law is reason free from passion.
A law is valuable not because it is law but because there is right in it.
When you break the big laws you do not get liberty; you do not even get anarchy. You get the small laws.
A state is better governed which has but few laws And those laws strictly observed.
Laws grind the poor and rich men rule the law.
Laws are generally not understood by three sorts of persons: those that make them those that execute them and those that suffer if they break them.
Those who are too lazy and comfortable to think for themselves and be their own judges obey the laws. Others sense their own laws within them.
The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the benefit of the public.
As laws are necessary that good manners may be preserved so there is need of good manners that laws may be maintained.
Petty laws breed great crimes.
Where law ends there tyranny begins.
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.
Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law.
The mills of God grind slow but they grind exceedingly small.
It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.
For the skeptic there remains only one consolation: if there should be such a thing as superhuman law it is administered with subhuman inefficiency.
A government of laws and not of men. Adams published articles in 1774 in the Boston Massachusetts Gazette using the pseudonym Novanglus. In this paper he credited James Harrington with expressing the idea this way. Harrington described government as the empire of laws and not of men in his 1656 work The Commonwealth of Oceana p. 35 (1771). The phrase gained wider currency when Adams used it in the Massachusetts Constitution Bill of Rights article 30 (1780).Works vol. 4 p. 230.
One a robot may not injure a human being or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm; Two a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; Three a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
A man ought warily to begin charges which once begun will continue.
The liberty of man consists solely in this: that he obeys natural laws because he has himself recognized them as such and not because they have been externally imposed upon him by any extrinsic will whatever divine or human collective or individual.
Law is justice. And it is under the law of justice under the reign of right; under the influence of liberty safety stability and responsibility that every person will attain his real worth and the true dignity of his being. It is only under this law of justice that mankind will achieve slowly no doubt but certainly God?s design for the orderly and peaceful progress of humanity.
LITIGATION n. A machine which you go into as a pig and come out of as a sausage.
The law is not a light for you or any man to see by; the law is not an instrument of any kind. The law is a causeway upon which so long as he keeps to it a citizen may walk safely.
If we desire respect for the law we must first make the law respectable.
Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.
I am glad I am an optimist. The pessimist is half-licked before he starts. The optimist has won half the battle the most important half that applies to himself when he begins his approach to a subject with the proper mental attitude. The optimist may not understand or if he understands he may not agree with prevailing ideas; but he believes yes knows that in the long run and in due course there will prevail whatever is right and best.
Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.
The more laws the less justice.
When you go to court you are putting your fate into the hands of twelve people who weren?t smart enough to get out of jury duty.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.
Solon used to say that speech was the image of actions; … that laws were like cobwebs for that if any trifling or powerless thing fell into them they held it fast; while if it were something weightier it broke through them and was off.
The clearest way to show what the rule of law means to us in everyday life is to recall what has happened when there is no rule of law.
No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my own constitution; the only wrong what is against it.
It is almost impossible systematically to constitute a natural moral law. Nature has no principles. She furnishes us with no reason to believe that human life is to be respected. Nature in her indifference makes no distinction between good and evil.
Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe seldom executed.
This is what has to be remembered about the law: Beneath that cold harsh impersonal exterior there beats a cold harsh impersonal heart.
I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.
If the law is upheld only by government officials then all law is at an end.
Certainly one of the highest duties of the citizen is a scrupulous obedience to the laws of the nation. But it is not the highest duty.
Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.
Wherever Law ends Tyranny begins.
Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.
Laws were made to be broken.
Tell me what you pay attention to and I will tell you who you are.
Where law ends tyranny begins.
You can?t legislate intelligence and common sense into people.