I would not look to the U.S. Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in 2012.

It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.

Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.

I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.

The jury consist of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.

The place of justice is a hallowed place.

I love being in a courtroom.

Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed.

Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap – let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice.

Nobody is above the law. Imagine if there allegations against Modi and he is the Prime Minister. Should the case not be pursued just because he has become the PM. It should not be so that it should be stopped. I am not above the law.

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.

It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature.

If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.

In 2008, I spoke out against calling the president a Muslim as if that was a curse. And then in 2012, once again, I was very disturbed about some of the intolerance I was seeing in the party, so I made a statement saying there’s a level of intolerance in some parts of the Republican Party. And there was, and I think there still is.

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.

Man takes his law from the Earth; the Earth takes its law from Heaven; Heaven takes its law from the Tao. The law of the Tao is its being what it is.

If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it.

I understood that with the swipe of my pen as a prosecutor, I would have the decision in my pen to make a decision about someone’s life.

I opposed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. It should be repealed and I will vote for its repeal on the Senate floor. I will also oppose any proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban gays and lesbians from marrying.

In most communities it is illegal to cry ‚fire‘ in a crowded assembly. Should it not be considered serious international misconduct to manufacture a general war scare in an effort to achieve local political aims?

If the law is upheld only by government officials, then all law is at an end.

I don’t know the law, the kind of law of quantity and quality, but I think the opportunity of people being able to express themselves and to have the means of production is a great thing. It’s also changing how we’re telling stories.

I do hope that some of my dissents will one day be the law.

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

I think we all change each other’s paths. I don’t know which law idea that is in physics, but I don’t think any of us can live without affecting one another.

No true believer could be intolerant or a persecutor. If I were a magistrate and the law carried the death penalty against atheists, I would begin by sending to the stake whoever denounced another.

The notion that it is improper to look beyond the borders of the United States in grappling with hard questions has a certain kinship to the view that the U.S. Constitution is a document essentially frozen in time as of the date of its ratification.

Possession isn’t nine-tenths of the law. It’s nine-tenths of the problem.

Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this.

Act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.

There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity – the law of nature and of nations.

Law is always better than war.

It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do.

Justice Scalia and I served together on the D.C. Circuit. So his votes are not surprising to me. What I like about him is that he’s very funny and very smart.

Laws, like houses, lean on one another.

Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.

The best interpreter of the law is custom.

Justice that love gives is a surrender, justice that law gives is a punishment.

I think most defense attorneys know, to some extent, their clients are guilty.

The law will never make a man free; it is men who have got to make the law free.

Justice is what is established; and thus all our established laws will necessarily be regarded as just without examination, since they are established.

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.

We have the oldest written constitution still in force in the world, and it starts out with three words, ‚We, the people.‘

It’s hard not to have a big year at the Supreme Court.

There is no person in this room whose basic rights are not involved in any successful defiance to the carrying out of court orders.

Retaliation is related to nature and instinct, not to law. Law, by definition, cannot obey the same rules as nature.

Lawless are they that make their wills their law.

If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.

The worst evil of disregard for some law is that it destroys respect for all law.

Obedience of the law is demanded; not asked as a favor.

Shame may restrain what law does not prohibit.

I just usually go with my own taste. If I like something, and it happens to be against the law, well, then I might have a problem.

To live outside the law, you must be honest.

Due process should matter.

Arizona presents no specific reason for excepting capital defendants from the constitutional protections extended to defendants generally, and none is readily apparent.

The good of the people is the greatest law.

I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

When the President does it, that means that it’s not illegal.

A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.

The roaring thunder of the law and the fear of the terror of judgment are both used to bring us to Christ, but the final victory culminating in our salvation is won through God’s loving-kindness.