“The law is obligated to punish the transgressor as much as the transgressor is obligated to obey the law — law has no option. Justice has but one function. The necessity of penalty is as great as the necessity of obligation. The law itself is under law; that is, it is under the necessity of its own nature; and therefore the only possible way whereby a transgressor can escape the penalty of the law, is for a substitute to endure it for him. The deep substrata and base of all God's ethical attributes are eternal law and impartial justice.”

—  William Greenough Thayer Shedd

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 267.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update May 18, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The law is obligated to punish the transgressor as much as the transgressor is obligated to obey the law — law has no o…" by William Greenough Thayer Shedd?
William Greenough Thayer Shedd photo
William Greenough Thayer Shedd5
American theologian 1820–1894

Related quotes

Yuval Noah Harari photo

“One of history’s few iron laws is that luxuries tend to become necessities and to spawn new obligations.”

Yuval Noah Harari Sapiens

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

N. K. Jemisin photo

“Honor in safety, survival under threat. Necessity is the only law.”

N. K. Jemisin book The Stone Sky

Source: The Stone Sky (2017), Chapter 9 “the desert, briefly, and you” (p. 231)

Oliver Cromwell photo

“Necessity has no law.”

Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) English military and political leader

Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fifth Book (1564)

Francois Rabelais photo

“Necessity has no law.”

Francois Rabelais book Gargantua and Pantagruel

Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fifth Book (1564), Chapter 15.

Robert Sheckley photo

“The law,” he said, “is above the criminal and the judge, and rules them both. The law is inescapable, for an action is either lawful or unlawful. The law, indeed, may be said to have a life of its own, an existence quite apart from the finite lives of the beings who administer it. The law governs every aspect of human behavior; therefore, to the same extent that humans are lawful beings, the law is human. And being human, the law has its idiosyncrasies, just as a man has his. For a citizen who abides by the law, the law is distant and difficult to find. For those who reject and violate it, the law emerges from its musty sepulchers and goes in search of the transgressor.”

Robert Sheckley book The Status Civilization

Source: The Status Civilization (1960), Chapter 15 (p. 65)

Alfredo Rocco photo

“I believe in the legal and social necessity of penalties, for penalties are not made only for delinquents. Penalties are made for all, because their essential function is to hold in sight of all citizens a threat of consequences, which operates powerfully as a psychologic motive, and does cause most citizens to observe the law.”

Alfredo Rocco (1875–1935) Italian politician and jurist

As quoted in “The Fascist Reform of the Penal Law in Italy,” Giulo Battaglin, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Vol. 24, Issue 1, May-June, summer 1933, p. 286. Speech in the Senate (1925)

“Necessity gives the law without itself acknowledging one.”
Necessitas dat legem non ipsa accipit.

Publilio Siro Latin writer

Maxim 444
Variant translation: Necessity knows no law except to conquer.
Necessitas non habet legem, "Necessity has no law", is apparently of medieval origin. See Necessity for further variants.
Sentences

John F. Kennedy photo

“Third, and finally, the educated citizen has an obligation to uphold the law.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

1963, Address at Vanderbilt University
Context: Third, and finally, the educated citizen has an obligation to uphold the law. This is the obligation of every citizen in a free and peaceful society — but the educated citizen has a special responsibility by the virtue of his greater understanding. For whether he has ever studied history or current events, ethics or civics, the rules of a profession or the tools of a trade, he knows that only a respect for the law makes it possible for free men to dwell together in peace and progress.

Leonardo Da Vinci photo

“Necessity is the theme and the inventress, the eternal curb and law of nature.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.

Related topics