You don’t send people to prison on the basis of what other people imagine, or on the basis of media sound bites like ‚shooting an unarmed child,‘ when that ‚child‘ was beating him bloody.

Free speech has been used by the Supreme Court to give immense power to the wealthiest members of our society.

People want to tear me down, they were going to knife me anyway.

I get very little sleep when the court is sitting.

Posture for combat is so vital.

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

A judge sworn to decide impartially can offer no forecasts, no hints, for that would show not only disregard for the specifics of the particular case, it would display disdain for the entire judicial process.

The law is reason, free from passion.

The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.

Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.

Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.

I never got into training to be an All-Ireland boxing champ or to win a belt. At the start, I just got into it to learn how to defend myself when I got into situations.

We’ve never advocated violence; violence is inflicted upon us. But we do believe in self-defense for ourselves and for black people.

When police or prosecutors conceal significant exculpatory or impeaching material, we hold, it is ordinarily incumbent on the state to set the record straight.

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

I’m not a person who defends myself very often. I kind of let my actions speak for me.

Judges ought to be more leaned than witty, more reverent than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.

The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice.

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

How accurately can the law fix the crime? There has to be a mechanism for very fast action. The law is like this: catch them and punish them.

Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.

The best interpreter of the law is custom.

None of my peers avoided prison. None of ‚em.

One day a guy tried to rob me on the street, and I had no money. So I charged him.

This above all, to refuse to be a victim.

Due process should matter.

It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.

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

Don’t hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.

In defense of our persons and properties under actual violation, we took up arms. When that violence shall be removed, when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, hostilities shall cease on our part also.

A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.

More law, less justice.

I like to have guns around. I don’t like to carry them.

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

No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms.

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.

Most states in the union where the death penalty is theoretically on the books don’t have executions.

Just because you’ve seen ‚My Cousin Vinny‘ doesn’t qualify you to be a federal judge.

Generally speaking, the public appetite for criminal justice policy is just tough talk.

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.

Fighting corruption is not just good governance. It’s self-defense. It’s patriotism.

Justice is expensive in America. There are no Free Passes… You might want to remember this, the next time you get careless and blow off a few Parking Tickets. They will come back to haunt you the next time you see a Cop car in your rear-view mirror.

Don’t hire a prison consultant.

The principle of self defense, even involving weapons and bloodshed, has never been condemned, even by Gandhi.

One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.

About the idea of a clash between cultures, between civilisations, I don’t believe in it. It’s something some political leaders tried to use, and that the media tried and are still trying to sell us, in order to simplify the world and their work.

Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.

Some may remember, if you have good memories, that there used to be a concept in Anglo-American law called a presumption of innocence, innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Now that’s so deep in history that there’s no point even bringing it up, but it did once exist.

I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family it says they’re looting, if you see a white family it says they’re looking for food.

I never sympathise with the accused unless there’s a chance the accused is not guilty, but I certainly don’t ever sympathise with the criminal.

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

If someone attacks me, and they want to punch or kick me, I can just run away. They’re not holding onto me. I can get away from them.

Let the punishments of criminals be useful. A hanged man is good for nothing; a man condemned to public works still serves the country, and is a living lesson.

I do like to have guns around. I don’t like to carry them. But I like – if somebody is going to come into my house and I have not put out the welcome mat, I want to stop them.

The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.

Sometimes if you want to get rid of the gun, you have to pick the gun up.

The one great principle of English law is to make business for itself.

One time, this guy was bothering my mother, and me and my brothers had a stern talking with the guy and a little bit of physicality with him. So he disappeared. But I’m not a magician.

Laws should be interpreted in a liberal sense so that their intention may be preserved.

If you have to stand and fight, you train yourself so that you’re able to do it.

We shouldn’t have to be burdened with all the technicalities that come up from time to time with shrewd, smart lawyers interpreting what the laws or what the Constitution may or may not say.