“The cliché organizes life; it expropriates people's identity; it becomes ruler, defense lawyer, judge, and the law.”

— Václav Havel , book Disturbing the Peace

Source: Disturbing the Peace (1986), Ch. 5

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 "The cliché organizes life; it expropriates people's identity; it becomes ruler, defense lawyer, judge, and the law." by Václav Havel?

Václav Havel 126

playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and 1st President of … 1936–2011

Related quotes

“The Judge has not organs to know and to deal with the text of the foreign law, and therefore requires the assistance of a foreign lawyer who knows how to interpret it.”

Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778–1868) English barrister, politician, and Lord Chancellor of Great Britain

Sussex Peerage Case (1844), 11 Cl. & F. 115.

“Self-defense is the clearest of all laws; and for this reason - the lawyers didn't make it.”

Douglas William Jerrold (1803–1857) English dramatist and writer

Reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“Civilization is mutual aid and self-defense; culture is the judge, the lawbook and the forces of Law & Ordure”

Edward Abbey book Desert Solitaire

"Episodes and Visions", p. 308
Desert Solitaire (1968)
Context: To make the distinction unmistakably clear: Civilization is the vital force in human history; culture is that inert mass of institutions and organizations which accumulate around and tend to drag down the advance of life; Civilization is Giordano Bruno facing death by fire; culture is the Cardinal Bellarmino, after ten years of inquisition, sending Bruno to the stake in the Campo di Fiori; Civilization is Sartre; culture Cocteau; Civilization is mutual aid and self-defense; culture is the judge, the lawbook and the forces of Law & Ordure (sic); Civilization is uprising, insurrection, revolution; culture is the war of state against state, or of machines against people, as in Hungary and Vietnam; Civilization is tolerance, detachment and humor, or passion, anger, revenge; culture is the entrance examination, the gas chamber, the doctoral dissertation and the electric chair; Civilization is the Ukrainian peasant Nestor Makhno fighting the Germans, then the Reds, then the Whites, then the Reds again; culture is Stalin and the Fatherland; Civilization is Jesus turning water into wine; culture is Christ walking on the waves; Civilization is a youth with a Molotov cocktail in his hand; culture is the Soviet tank or the L. A. cop that guns him down; Civilization is the wild river; culture, 592,000 tons of cement; Civilization flows; culture thickens and coagulates, like tired, sick, stifled blood.

“The Judge does not make the law. It is people that make the law. Therefore if a law is unjust, and if the Judge judges according to the law, that is justice, even if it is not just.”

Alan Paton book Cry, the Beloved Country

Source: Cry, the Beloved Country

“Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law”

John Paul Stevens (1920–2019) Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Dissenting, Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000).
Context: Time will one day heal the wound to that confidence that will be inflicted by today's decision. One thing, however, is certain. Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.

“Trying to avoid clichés helps life become fresh again, helps us remember what life is about in the first place. -Fingerprint.”

Mark Heard (1951–1992) American musician and record producer

Liner Notes

““Gay panic” is insidious. It appeals to juries, who are allegedly made up of random members of the community. What defense lawyers know is that most people are repulsed by the idea of gay —especially gay male— sex. Those lawyers know that a claim of defense against an alleged gay sexual advance will win points with the jury of peers.”

Jeffrey Montgomery (1953–2016) American LGBT rights activist and public relations executive

America...You Kill Me

“The entire legal profession - lawyers, judges, law teachers - has become so mesmerized with the stimulation of the courtroom contest that we tend to forget that we ought to be healers - healers of conflicts. Doctors, in spite of astronomical medical costs, still retain a high degree of public confidence, because they are perceived as healers. Should lawyers not be healers? Healers, not warriors? Healers, not procurers? Healers, not hired guns?”

Warren E. Burger (1907–1995) Chief Justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986

Annual address to the America Bar Association winter convention, Las Vegas (February 12, 1984).

“People must be confident that a judge’s decisions are determined by the law, and only the law.”

Merrick Garland (1952) American judge

[Remarks by the President Announcing Judge Merrick Garland as his Nominee to the Supreme Court, Merrick, Garland, w:Merrick Garland, The White House, March 16, 2016, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Remarks_by_the_President_Announcing_Judge_Merrick_Garland_as_his_Nominee_to_the_Supreme_Court#Remarks_by_Judge_Garland]; quote then excerpted in:
[March 18, 2016, ABC News, http://abcnews.go.com/News/merrick-garland-supreme-court-nomination-greatest-honor-life/story?id=37692486, Merrick Garland: Supreme Court Nomination 'Greatest Honor of My Life', March 16, 2016, Margaret Chadbourn]; and quote also excerpted in:
[March 18, 2016, The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/law/2016/mar/17/black-judge-effect-race-bias-overturning-court-cases, 'Black judge effect': study of overturning rates questions if justice is really blind, Rose Hackman]
Remarks by Judge Garland upon nomination to Supreme Court of the United States (2016)

“If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

“The cliché organizes life; it expropriates people's identity; it becomes ruler, defense lawyer, judge, and the law.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Václav Havel 126

Related quotes

Related topics