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.

The thing about Jiu Jitsu is it is also not for everybody. It can be very humiliating and humbling. If you have a hard time dealing with the fact that someone smaller than you may be able to tap you out, it is going to be difficult.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences, for there is no worse torture than that of laws.

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.

Law is always better than war.

The goal of jiu-jitsu in self-defense isn’t to take someone down to the ground – the goal in jiu-jitsu for self-defense is actually to be able to defend yourself on the ground, get up, and get away from an attacker. That’s what the goal is.

I get very little sleep when the court is sitting.

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

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

Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.

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.

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

My mother was very strong. Once, she picked up a coconut and smashed it against my father’s head. It taught me about women defending themselves and not collapsing in a heap.

Law, without force, is impotent.

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 best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.

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

Law is mind without reason.

I hope that a move toward clemency with Judge Afiuni would be a step towards the importance of maintaining a properly functioning justice system.

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

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

I am never proud to participate in violence, yet I know that each of us must care enough for ourselves that we can be ready and able to come to our own defense when and wherever needed.

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

Who wants to leave the door open to being dominated physically by another human being? Jiu Jitsu gives you the ability to not be dominated by that person, and to me, that’s real peace of mind. I don’t have to worry about that when I’m walking around in the world.

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.

Due process should matter.

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.

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

More law, less justice.

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

It’s a lose-lose situation to get in a confrontation on the street. If you can break contact and get away, break contact and get away. That’s what you should learn self-defense for.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

Algorithms diminish public safety in this country. They ask us to pretend that lengthy arrest records and violent crimes don’t matter. They ask police to scoop up the bad guys only for the courts to immediately release them. They turn us into a bad joke.

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

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.

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

Every video I’m in, every magazine cover, they stretch you; they make you perfect. It’s not real life.

No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms.

I have a self-defense mind. I’ve had it all my life.

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

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

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

The act of policing is, in order to punish less often, to punish more severely.

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

You’re innocent until proven guilty.

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

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.

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

I think if someone gets kicked in the face it is their fault – they watched the foot come towards their face.

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.