Aphorisms Galore!

Law and Politics

163 aphorisms  ·  7 comments

Aphorisms in This Category

tiny.ag/r8irgp4q  ·  submitted 1997

Every government is run by liars and nothing they say should be believed.

I. F. Stone, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/gt1zngj3  ·  submitted 1998

There exists among humans no natural authority, only that established for convenience.

John Teeple, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/cjhepgxr  ·  submitted 1997

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

Henry David Thoreau, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/yuvqmpjc  ·  submitted 1997

Men make history, and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.

Harry S Truman, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/a1rdjbky  ·  submitted 1997

When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.

Harry S Truman, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/zzcxms0q  ·  submitted 1997

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either.

Mark Twain, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/yh5kxuzq  ·  submitted 1997

Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.

Mark Twain, (inscription beneath his bust in the Hall of Fame), in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/mwoxawkr  ·  submitted 1997

Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.

Mark Twain, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/weoyuknk  ·  submitted 1997

Politics is the art of preventing people from busying themselves with what is their own business.

Paul Valéry, (from Politicians and Other Scoundrels by Ferdinand Lundberg), in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/is5ffzu6  ·  submitted 1997

A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election.

Bill Vaughan, in Law and Politics and War and Peace

tiny.ag/jjhww8cq  ·  submitted 1997

I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.

Voltaire, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/f4xotdy1  ·  submitted 1997

I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it.

Voltaire, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/cuh1ej24  ·  submitted 1997

He who does not prefer exile to slavery is not free by any measure of freedom, truth and duty.

Kahlil Gibran, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/4liye13x  ·  submitted 1997

A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.

Samuel Goldwyn, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/ocm1aexh  ·  submitted 1997

Corruption is no stranger to Washington; it is a famous resident.

Walter Goodman, All Honorable Men, 1963, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/mcsdq3k5  ·  submitted 1997

A learned County Court judge in a book of memoirs recently said that the overwhelming amount of his time on the bench was taken up "with people who are persuaded by persons whom they do not know to enter into contracts that they do not understand to purchase goods that they do not want with money that they have not got."

Lord Greene, in Altruism and Cynicism and Law and Politics

tiny.ag/gam5ctee  ·  submitted 1997

If it weren't for lawyers, we wouldn't need them.

A. K. Griffin, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/xenm7mq9  ·  submitted 1997

It is easy to take liberty for granted when you have never had it taken from you.

M. Grundler, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/mb7skahf  ·  submitted 1997

It is people who live by the rules that are always hoping to get them changed.

Robert Harbison, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/w06shyav  ·  submitted 1997

Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty.

Henry M. Robert, in Law and Politics