“There are times when the law jeopardizes those who obey it.”
Source: Pussy, King of the Pirates
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Kathy Acker38
American novelist, playwright, essayist, and poet 1947–1997Related quotes
Bertolt Brecht The Threepenny Opera
Polly Peachum, in Act 3, scene 1, p. 74
Variant translation: The law was made for one thing alone, for the exploitation of those who don't understand it, or are prevented by naked misery from obeying it.
The Threepenny Opera (1928)
Edward VI of England (1537–1553) King of England, Tudor dynasty
I will fart all I want to without being told not to.
Source: Linda Porter (2010) Mary Tudor: The First Queen. p. 26: To his half-sister Mary I of England, who was ignoring his anti-Catholic laws. Greenwich, 28 January, 1551.
William Ernest Hocking (1873–1966) American philosopher
Preface (20 May 1926), p. vii.
Present Status of the Philosophy of Law and of Rights (1926)
Context: For those who have only to obey, law is what the sovereign commands. For the sovereign, in the throes of deciding what he ought to command, this view of law is singularly empty of light and leading. In the dispersed sovereignty of modern states, and especially in times of rapid social change, law must look to the future as well as to history and precedent, and to what is possible and right as well as to what is actual.
Chris Hedges (1956) American journalist
“Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System” (2011)
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India
Young India (24 September 1931); also in Teachings Of Mahatma Gandhi (1945), edited by Jag Parvesh Chander, p. 458 archive.org https://archive.org/stream/teachingsofmahat029222mbp#page/n463/mode/2up <br class="br">1930s <br class="br">Context: It is beyond my power to induce in you a belief in God. There are certain things which are self proved and certain which are not proved at all. The existence of God is like a geometrical axiom. It may be beyond our heart grasp. I shall not talk of an intellectual grasp. Intellectual attempts are more or less failures, as a rational explanation cannot give you the faith in a living God. For it is a thing beyond the grasp of reason. It transcends reason. There are numerous phenomena from which you can reason out the existence of God, but I shall not insult your intelligence by offering you a rational explanation of that type. I would have you brush aside all rational explanations and begin with a simple childlike faith in God. If I exist, God exists. With me it is a necessity of my being as it is with millions. They may not be able to talk about it, but from their life you can see that it is a part of their life. I am only asking you to restore the belief that has been undermined. In order to do so, you have to unlearn a lot of literature that dazzles your intelligence and throws you off your feet. Start with the faith which is also a token of humility and an admission that we know nothing, that we are less than atoms in this universe. We are less than atoms, I say, because the atom obeys the law of its being, whereas we in the insolence of our ignorance deny the law of nature. But I have no argument to address to those who have no faith.
James Comey (1960) American lawyer and the seventh director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
2010s, Hard Truths: Law Enforcement (2015)
“You must obey the law, always, not only when they grab you by your special place.”
Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister
Надо исполнять закон всегда, а не только тогда, когда схватили за одно место.
Interview, 4 November 2003
2000 - 2005
Philip K. Dick book Solar Lottery
“You just know,” Rita O’Neill said fiercely.
Source: Solar Lottery (1955), Chapter 14 (pp. 156-157)