Marguerite Yourcenar book Memoirs of Hadrian
Toute loi trop souvent transgressée est mauvaise: c'est au législateur à l'abroger ou à la changer.
Source: Memoirs of Hadrian (1951), p. 113
Attributed in A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908) by Tryon Edwards; this is earlier attributed to Theodore Roosevelt in Life of William McKinley (1901) by Samuel Fallows, and could be derived from the remarks of Ulysses S. Grant in his First Inaugural Address (4 March 1869): "I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution".
Misattributed
Marguerite Yourcenar book Memoirs of Hadrian
Toute loi trop souvent transgressée est mauvaise: c'est au législateur à l'abroger ou à la changer.
Source: Memoirs of Hadrian (1951), p. 113
Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States
1860s, First Inaugural Address (1869)
Context: Laws are to govern all alike — those opposed as well as those who favor them. I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.
“There are no good laws but such as repeal other laws.”
Andrew Johnson (1808–1875) American politician, 17th president of the United States (in office from 1865 to 1869)
Statement (1835), as quoted in Andrew Johnson, Plebeian and Patriot (1928) by Robert Watson Winston.
Quote
“All laws stand on the best and broadest basis which go to enforce moral and social duties.”
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon (1732–1802) British Baron
Pasley v. Freeman (1789), 3 T. R. 51.
John Grisham book The Last Juror
John Grisham, The Last Juror: A Novel, p. 357 (Author's Note) (2004)
Source: [Grisham, John, 2004, The Last Juror, BCA, 357 (Author's Note), 0-385-51043-8]
“The best use of laws is to teach men to trample bad laws under their feet.”
Wendell Phillips (1811–1884) American abolitionist, advocate for Native Americans, orator and lawyer
Speech at the Melodeon, on the first anniversary of the rendition of Thomas Sims (12 April 12 1852), published in Speeches, Letters and Lectures by Wendell Phillips https://archive.org/details/speecheslectures7056phil (1884), p. 91. <br class="br">1850s
“This is not the “rule of law”…it is the “rule of law enforcement.””
Barrett Brown (1981) American journalist, essayist and satirist
The Guardian, "Barrett Brown statement: 'This is not the rule of law, it is the rule of law enforcement'" http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/22/barrett-brown-hacking-sentencing-full-statement-text, 22 January 2015.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet
Article 9 <br class="br"> "Declaration of Rights" http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/PShelley/declarat.html (1812)