“What is a law, if those who make it
Become the forwardest to break it?”

The Wolf and Shepherds (1776).

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "What is a law, if those who make it Become the forwardest to break it?" by James Beattie?
James Beattie photo
James Beattie 18
Scottish poet, moralist and philosopher 1735–1803

Related quotes

George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax photo

“Laws are generally not understood by three sorts of persons, viz. by those who make them, by those who execute them, and by those who suffer, if they break them.”

George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax (1633–1695) English politician

Of Laws.
Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750), Political Thoughts and Reflections

Terry Pratchett photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Jordan Peterson photo
Charles A. Beard photo

“It is always becoming something else and those who criticize it and the acts done under it, as well as those who praise, help to make it what it will be tomorrow.”

Charles A. Beard (1874–1948) American historian

The American Leviathan: The Republic in the Machine Age (1931) co-written with William Beard, p. 39
Context: If this statement by Judge Cooley is true, and the authority for it is unimpeachable, then the theory that the Constitution is a written document is a legal fiction. The idea that it can be understood by a study of its language and the history of its past development is equally mythical. It is what the Government and the people who count in public affairs recognize and respect as such, what they think it is. More than this. It is not merely what it has been, or what it is today. It is always becoming something else and those who criticize it and the acts done under it, as well as those who praise, help to make it what it will be tomorrow.

James Comey photo
Sir Frederick Pollock, 1st Baronet photo

“International law, like the moral law, is part of the law of England, but only to the extent that the Courts will not help those that break it.”

Sir Frederick Pollock, 1st Baronet (1783–1870) British lawyer and Tory politician

Attorney-General v. Sillem and others, "The Alexandra " (1864), 12 W. R. 258.

Edward VI of England photo

“I will say with certain intention, that I will see my laws strictly obeyed, and those who break them shall be watched and denounced.”

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.

Related topics