Law.
Table Talk (1689)
“But if one Subject giveth Counsell to another, to do anything contrary to the Lawes, whether that Counsell proceed from evil intention, or from ignorance onely, it is punishable by the Common-wealth; because ignorance of the Law, is no good excuse, where every man is bound to take notice of the Lawes to which he is subject.”
The Second Part, Chapter 25, p. 132
Leviathan (1651)
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Thomas Hobbes 97
English philosopher, born 1588 1588–1679Related quotes
Source: Liberalism (1911), Chapter II, The Elements of Liberalism, p. 17.
Letters and Papers from Prison (1967; 1997), The Friend
Bilbie v. Lumley (1802), 2 East, 469.
“Lawyers are the only persons in whom ignorance of the law is not punished.”
Attributed to Bentham in The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations (1949) by Evan Esar, p. 29; no earlier sources for this have been located.
Disputed
The Pageant of Life (1964), On Planning for a Better World
Source: What is Property? (1840), Chapter One