Quotes About Legislation

All our work, our whole life is a matter of semantics, because words are the tools with which we work, the material out of which laws are made, out of which the Constitution was written. Everything depends on our understanding of them.

ley es para tranquilizarles la conciencia a los del Congreso, que creen que están trabajando;

The law is guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish.

Do not the legislators and their agents form a part of the human race? Do they consider that they are composed of different materials from the rest of mankind?

It ought to be said, the aim of the law is to prevent injustice from reigning. In fact, it is not justice that has an existence of its own, it is injustice. The one results from the absence of the other.

What is a law? he asked himself. It is a measure to which, when once promulgated, whether it is good or bad, everyone has to conform.

It is not because men have made laws, that personality, liberty, and property exist. On the contrary, it is because personality, liberty, and property exist beforehand, that men make laws.

We should not see those great displacements of capital, of labor, and of population, that legislative measures occasion; displacements that render so uncertain and precarious the very sources of existence, and thus enlarge to such an extent the responsibility of Governments.

Charmed with his discourse, delighted to learn that it is so easy to promote, by legislating, the prosperity of a people, the law-makers voted the restriction. "Talk of labor and economy," they said, "what is the use of these painful means of increasing the national wealth, when all that is wanted for this object is a decree?

Law is organized Justice. Now

And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works.

What is a law?" said he to himself. "It is a measure to which, when once it is decreed, be it good or bad, everybody is bound to conform. For the execution of the same a public force is organized, and to constitute the said public force, men and money are drawn from the whole nation.

Desgraciadas, tres veces desgraciadas las naciones en las cuales sea este último pensamiento el que predomine en las masas en el momento en que a su vez se apoderen de la facultad de legislar!

But the law is made, generally, by one man, or by one class of men. And as law cannot exist without the sanction and the support of a preponderating force, it must finally place this force in the hands of those who legislate. This

quando se tenta fazer a lei religiosa, fraternal, igualitária, filantrópica, industrial, literária, artística, logo se atinge o infinito, o incerto, o desconhecido, a utopia imposta ou, o que é pior, uma infinidade de utopias em luta para apossar-se da lei e se impor. Pois a fraternidade e a filantropia, ao contrário da justiça, não têm limites fixos. Onde pararão? Onde parará a lei?

The Law by Frédéric Bastiat

As classes espoliadas acabarão por entender como entrar no jogo político e espoliar seus semelhantes. A legislação jamais será guiada por quaisquer princípios de justiça, mas apenas pela força política bruta.

Uma "ditadura" não precisa envolver um ditador efetivo. Tudo o que era necessário, dizia Bastiat, eram "as leis", promulgadas por um Congresso ou um Parlamento, que produzissem o mesmo efeito: conformidade forçada.

according to Montesquieu, the persons, the liberties, the property, mankind itself, are nothing but materials to exercise the sagacity of lawgivers." Rousseau.

Men, therefore, are nothing but raw material. It is not for them to will their own improvement. They are not capable of it; according to Saint Just, it is only the legislator who is.

Why shouldn't we have laws forbidding pornography and obscenity? Many heroic leaders have tried, but they have stumbled over even the definition of the word "obscenity." If we cannot agree on the length of a foot, it is because we have lost our yardstick.

For since the respective members are bound to conform themselves to the will of the state, it is expedient that they receive directions from the state declaratory of that it's will.

If we have altars set up in our homes, they can't be legislated; money can't be collected on them. Satanism takes religion beyond the realm of consumerism.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to argue that laws written in the 1970s are adequate for today's intelligence challenges.