Quotes About Law

The limit of the law is the limit of enforcement—the real limit of organized society.

Law always chooses sides on the basis of enforcement power. Morality and legal niceties have little to do with it when the real question is: Who has the clout?   —Bene

Hittite law emphasized restitution rather than revenge. Humankind lost a certain useful practicality when it chose the other Semitic response—never to forgive and never to forget.

So I quoted the First Law of Mentat at her: 'A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it.

There's no such thing as equal justice anywhere. It's unsettling to a society when you try to achieve such a false balance.

Law must retain useful ways to break with traditional forms because nothing is more certain than that the forms of Law remain when all justice is gone. — Gowachin aphorism

Government and religion united, and breaking a law became sin. A smell of blasphemy arose like smoke around any questioning of governmental edicts. The guilt of rebellion invoked hellfire and self-righteous judgments. Yet it was men who created these governmental edicts.

There exists a limit to the force even the most powerful may apply without destroying themselves. Judging this limit is the true artistry of government. Misuse of power is the fatal sin. The law cannot be a tool of vengeance, never a hostage, nor a fortification against the martyrs it has created. You cannot threaten any individual and escape the consequences

Law always chooses sides on the basis of enforcement power. Morality and legal niceties have little to do with it when the real question is: Who has the clout?

Most civilization is based on cowardice. It's so easy to civilize by teaching cowardice. You water down the standards which would lead to bravery. You restrain the will. You regulate the appetites. You fence in the horizons. You make a law for every movement. You deny the existence of chaos. You teach even the children to breathe slowly. You tame.

Evidence! What is evidence except those things you are allowed to perceive? That's what Law tries to control: carefully managed reality.

They have no room to maneuver because that's the way their superiors grow fat. If you don't see the difference between regulation and law, both have the force of law.

Law—our highest ideal and our basest nature. Don't look too closely at the law.

Law always chooses sides on the basis of enforcement power. Morality and legal niceties have little to do with it when the real question is: Who has the clout? -Bene Gesserit Council Proceedings: Archives #XOX232

When law and duty are one, united by religion, you never become fully conscious, fully aware of yourself. You are always a little less than an individual. —FROM "MUAD'DIB: THE NINETY-NINE WONDERS OF THE UNIVERSE" BY THE PRINCESS IRULAN

Laws convey the myth of enforced change. A bright new future will come because of this law or that one. Laws enforce the future.

Religion and law among our masses must be one and the same," his father said. "An act of disobedience must be a sin and require religious penalties. This will have the dual benefit of bringing both greater obedience and greater bravery.

Legile cer întotdeauna s? fie interpretate. Cel care se priponeÈ™te de lege nu vrea s? lase nicio È™ans? compasiunii. Nicio marj? de manevr?. "Legea e lege!

Justice required resort to law and that could be a fickle mistress, subject always to the whims and prejudices of those who administered the laws. No, it was a question of fairness, a concept that went much deeper. The people upon whom judgment was passed must feel the fairness of it.

Professional legalists were absolutely prohibited from Gowachin judicial service. Let the people judge.

She said the mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience. So I quoted the First Law of Mentat at her: 'A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with

When law and duty are one, united by religion, you never become fully conscious, fully aware of yourself. You are always a little less than an individual. -From Muad'Dib: The Ninety-Nine Wonders of the Universe by The Princess Irulan

There exists a limit to the force even the most powerful may apply without destroying themselves. Judging this limit is the true artistry of government. Misuse of power is the fatal sin. The law cannot be a tool of vengeance, never a hostage, nor a fortification against the martyrs it has created. You cannot threaten any individual and escape the consequences. —MUAD'DIB ON LAW FROM THE STILGAR COMMENTARY

What's law? Control? Law filters chaos and what drips through? Serenity? Law—our highest ideal and our basest nature. Don't look too closely at the law. Do, and you'll find the rationalized interpretations, the legal casuistry, the precedents of convenience. You'll find the serenity, which is just another word for death.