Top Law & Employment Quotes

Great Quotes of Law & Employment
Compiled by Daniel Orlansky from wikiquotes

Chapter 1
Lawyers
Lawyers are people who practice law, as a barrister,
judge, attorney, counsel (counselor at law) or solicitor.
Law is the system of rules of conduct established by
the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs,
maintain the stability of political and social authority, and
deliver justice. Working as a lawyer involves the practi-
cal application of abstract legal theories and knowledge
to solve speciﬁc individualized problems, or to advance
the interests of those who hire lawyers to perform legal
services.
1.1 Quotes
• It may be that the jury would incline to regard a
practising lawyer as a man of probity whose word
was prima facie worthy of belief. But the belief
of lawyers in their own probity is not universally
shared, and there are those who believe them to be
capable of almost any chicanery or sharp practice.
• Lord Bingham of Cornhill, writing for the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, in
Singh v. The State (Trinidad and Tobago)
[2005] UKPC 35 (03 August 2005).
• America is the paradise of lawyers.
• Attributed to David J. Brewer in Champ
Clark, My Quarter Century of American Pol-
itics (1920), vol. 2, p. 130.
• We have the heaviest concentration of lawyers
on Earth—one for every ﬁve-hundred Americans;
three times as many as are in England, four times as
many as are in West Germany, twenty-one times as
many as there are in Japan. We have more litigation,
but I am not sure that we have more justice. No
resources of talent and training in our own society,
even including the medical care, is more wastefully
or unfairly distributed than legal skills. Ninety per-
cent of our lawyers serve 10 percent of our people.
We are over-lawyered and under-represented.
• President Jimmy Carter, Remarks at the 100th
Anniversary Luncheon of the Los Ange-
les County Bar Association, May 4, 1978
(American Presidency Project e-text).
• A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide
who has the better lawyer.
• Robert Frost, quoted in Fire and Ice: The
Art and Thought of Robert Frost (1961) by
Lawrence Thompson.
• The function of the lawyer is to preserve a
sceptical relativism in a society hell-bent for ab-
solutes. The worse the society, the more law there
will be. In Hell there will be nothing but law and
due process will be meticulously observed.
• Grant Gilmore, The Ages of American Law
(1977), p. 110
• Lawyers earn their bread in the sweat of their brow-
beating.
• James Huneker, Painted Veils (New York:
Boni & Liveright, 1920), p. 137 (Google
Books e-text).
• Lawyers, I suppose, were children once.
• Charles Lamb, Elia (1823), “The Old
Benchers of the Inner Temple”, p. 193
• I pleaded your cause, Sextus, having agreed to do so
for two thousand sesterces How is it that you have
sent me only a thousand? “You said nothing,” you
tell me, “and this cause was lost through you.” You
ought to give me so much the more, Sextus, as I had
to blush for you.
• Martial, Epigrams, Bk. VIII, Ep. 18, reported
in Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quota-
tions (1922), p. 410.
• Lawyer — One who protects us against robbers by
taking away the temptation.
2

1.1. QUOTES 3
• H.L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy
(1949).
• That makes me think, my friend, as I have often
done before, how natural it is that those who have
spent a long time in the study of philosophy ap-
pear ridiculous when they enter the courts of law
as speakers…. Those who have knocked about in
courts and the like from their youth up seem to me,
when compared with those who have been brought
up in philosophy and similar pursuits, to be as slaves
in breeding compared with freemen.
• Plato, Theaetetus (c. 369 BC), trans. H. N.
Fowler (1921), p. 115.
• Let’s ask ourselves: Does America really need 70
percent of the world’s lawyers? Is it healthy for our
economy to have 18 million new lawsuits coursing
through the system annually? Is it right that people
with disputes come up against staggering expense
and delay?
• Vice President Dan Quayle, address to the
American Bar Association, quoted in David
Margolick (1991-08-14). "Address by Quayle
On Justice Proposals Irks Bar Association".
New York Times. Retrieved on 2009-01-01.
• A common and not necessarily apocryphal example
portrays a solo practitioner starved for business in a
small town. A second lawyer then arrives, and they
both prosper.
• Deborah L. Rhode, In the Interests of Justice:
Reforming the Legal Profession, Oxford US
(2000)
• About half the practice of a decent lawyer consists of
telling would-be clients that they are damned fools
and should stop.
• Elihu Root, quoted in Philip C. Jessup, Elihu
Root (Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1964),
vol. 1, p. 133, as cited by Lloyd B. Snyder,
“Is attorney-client conﬁdentiality necessary?",
Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, Spring
2002, p. 33.
• What are lawyers really? To me a lawyer is basi-
cally the person that knows the rules of the coun-
try. We're all throwing the dice, playing the game,
moving our pieces around the board, but if there’s a
problem, the lawyer is the only person that has ac-
tually read the inside of the top of the box.
• Jerry Seinfeld, SeinLanguage (New York:
Bantam, 1993), ISBN 0553096060, p. 90.
• Cade: Be brave, then; for your captain is brave, and
vows reformation. There shall be in England seven
halfpenny loaves sold for a penny, the three-hooped
pot shall have ten hoops, and I will make it felony to
drink small beer; all the realm shall be in common;
and in Cheapside shall my palfrey go to grass; and
when I am king, as king I will be, there shall be no
money; all shall eat and drink on my score; and I will
apparel them all in one livery, that they may agree
like brothers and worship me their lord.
Dick: The ﬁrst thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.
Cade: Nay, that I mean to do.
• William Shakespeare, Henry the Sixth, Part II,
IV, ii (1623), suggesting that all lawyers would
have to die in order for Cade to impose his will
as king, with a list of absurd laws he would
propose.
• Is it not remarkable that the common repute which
we all give to attorneys in the general is exactly op-
posite to that which every man gives to his own at-
torney in particular? Whom does anybody trust so
implicitly as he trusts his own attorney? And yet is
it not the case that the body of attorneys is supposed
to be the most roguish body in existence?
• Anthony Trollope, Miss Mackenzie (1865), ch.
17 (Project Gutenburg e-text).
• [Lawyers] can make the worse appear the better
cause, as though they were fresh from Leontine
schools, and have been known to wrest from reluc-
tant juries triumphant verdicts of acquittal for their
clients, even when those clients, as often happens,
were clearly and unmistakably innocent.
• Oscar Wilde, "The Decay of Lying", Inten-
tions (New York: Brentano’s, 1905).
• The Court must have ministers : the attornies are its
ministers.
• Joseph Yates, J., Mayor of Norwich v. Berry
(1766), 4 Burr. Part IV., p. 2115, reported in
James William Norton-Kyshe, Dictionary of
Legal Quotations (1904), p. 16.
• An incompetent attorney can delay a trial for years
or months. A competent attorney can delay one even
longer.
• Evelle J. Younger, California Attorney Gen-
eral, Los Angeles Times, March 3, 1971.
• When there are too many policemen, there can be no
individual liberty, when there are too many lawyers,
there can be no justice, and when there are too many
soldiers, there can be no peace.

4 CHAPTER 1. LAWYERS
• Lin Yutang, Between Tears and Laughter
(1943), p. 66.
• "[F]or a long time I used to think that anal sex was
how lawyers were conceived.”
• Nicholas Lezard, “Love is in the air”, New
Statesman, 30 April 2009.
1.2 External links
http://www.looklawyers.com

Chapter 2
Legal counsel
Legal counsel is the primary function of a lawyer, and
includes the advising and representation of clients.
2.1 Sourced
2.1.1 The Dictionary of Legal Quotations
(1904)
Quotes reported in James William Norton-Kyshe,
The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 51-
55.
• A gentleman of Lincoln’s-inn.
• Holt, C.J., Butler’s Case (1699), 13 How. St.
Tr. 1259.
• A gentleman at the Bar.
• Lord Mansfield, Windham v. Chetwynd
(1757), 1 Burr. Part IV. 427.
• No counsel in the world that understand themselves,
can argue anything against what has been often set-
tled and always practised.
• Holt, C.J., Parkyn’s Case (1696), 13 How. St.
Tr. 134.
• If any whimsical notions are put into you, by some
enthusiastic counsel, the Court is not to take notice
of their crotchets.
• Jefferies, C.J., Hayes’ Case (1684), 10 How.
St. Tr. 314.
• In a common case, it is the usual course for the coun-
sel to take the memorandums in his hand, for the
cross-examination.
• Eyre, L.C.J., Trial of Thomas Hardy (1794),
24 How. St. Tr. 824.
• It is impossible the cause can go on, unless the gen-
tlemen at the bar will a little understand one another,
and by mutual forbearance, assist one another; you
are a little too apt to break out, and I think there has
been a little inclination sometimes to observe more
upon that than the occasion calls for.
• Eyre, L.C.J., Hardy’s Case (1794), 24 How.
St. Tr. 688.
• It is fit they should speak what they can for the ad-
vantage of their client.
• Walcot, J., Hampden’s Case (1684), 9 How.
St. Tr. 1104.
• It has been always the practice heretofore, that when
the Court have delivered their opinion, the counsel
should sit down and not dispute it any further.
• Jefferies, C.J., Case of Titus Oates (1685), 10
How. St. Tr. 1186.
• Consider a little how you treat the Court; the objec-
tion hath been solemnly taken in this Court, argued
and adjudged by this Court, and now you come to
arraign that judgment that was then given.
• John Pratt, C.J., Layer’s Case (1722), 16 How.
St. Tr. 313.
• The point now before us is a settled case, and there-
fore there is no need to enter into arguments about
it.
• Thomas Denison, Rex v. Jarvis (1756), 1 Burr.
Part IV. 154.
• There is usually a decency about counsel which pre-
vents them from pressing that to a conclusion which
can never be concluded.
• Gibbs, C.J., Tomkins and others v. Willshear
(1813), 5 Taunton, 431.
5

6 CHAPTER 2. LEGAL COUNSEL
• Counsel are frequently induced, and they are jus-
tified in taking the most favourable view of their
clients’ case; and it is not fair to pass over any piece
of evidence they find difficult to deal with, provided
they cite, fairly and correctly, those parts of the ev-
idence they comment upon.
• Lord Kenyon, Case of Earl of Thanet and oth-
ers (1799), 27 How. St. Tr. 940.
• A counsel’s position is one of the utmost difficulty.
He is not to speak of that which he knows; he is not
called upon to consider whether the facts with which
he is dealing are true or false. What he has to do, is
to argue as best he can, without degrading himself,
in order to maintain the proposition which will carry
with it either the protection or the remedy which he
desires for his client. If amidst the difficulties of his
position he were to be called upon during the heat
of his argument to consider whether what he says
is true or false, whether what he says is relevant or
irrelevant, he would have his mind so embarrassed
that he could not do the duty which he is called upon
to perform. For, more than a Judge, infinitely more
than a witness, he wants protection on the ground of
benefit to the public. The rule of law is that what is
said in the course of the administration of the law
is privileged; and the reason of that rule covers a
counsel even more than a Judge or a witness.
• Brett, M.R., Munster v. Lamb (1833), L. R.
11 Q. B. 603.
• And let not the counsel at the bar chop with the
Judge, nor wind himself into the handling of the
cause anew, after the Judge hath declared his sen-
tence.
• Bacon, " Essay on Judicature.”
• Absurdum est affirjnare (re judicata) eredendum
esse non judici: It is absurd to say, after judgment,
that any one else than the Judge should be hearkened
to.
• 12 Co. 25.
• It is expected you should do your best for those you
are assigned for, as it is expected in any other case,
that you do your duty for your client.
• Holt, C.J., Rookwood’s Case (1696), 13 How.
St. Tr. 154.
• The Court is greatly obliged to the gentlemen of the
Bar who have spoke on the subject; and by whose
care and abilities so much has been effected, that
the rule of decision will be reduced to a very easy
compass. I cannot omit to express particular hap-
piness in seeing young men, just called to the Bar,
have been able so much to profit by their reading.
• Lord Mansfield, Somerset v. Stewart (1772),
Lofft. 18; id. The Negro Case, 20 How. St.
Tr. 80.
• No man has a higher sense of the importance of the
rights and privileges of counsel in discharge of their
arduous and important duties, and I should regret if
they had not that privilege, not for their sake only,
but for the sake of the whole community.
• Cockhurn, C.J., Ex parte Pater (1864), 9 Cox,
C. C. 553.
• You need not cite cases that are familiar.
• Sir Frederick Pollock, 1st Baronet, Reg. v.
Baldry (1852), 5 Cox, C. C. 525.
• An overspeaking Judge is a no well-timed cymbal.
It is no grace to a Judge first to find that which he
might have heard in due time from the Bar, or to
show quickness of conceit in cutting off evidence or
counsel too short, or to prevent (anticipate) informa-
tion by questions, though pertinent.
• Bacon, Essay of Judicature.
• You need not cite cases: 'Tis a principle.
• Lord Mansfield's remark to Counsel counsel in
the course of the argument in Morgan v. Jones
(1773), Lofft. 165. See also per Lord Alter
stone in Rex r. Archbishop of Canterbury and
another (1902), T. L. R. Vol. 18, 388.
• I remember Lord Eldon saying to counsel, " You
have told us how far the cases have gone, will you
now tell us where they are to stop?" I think it is now
time that we should say where the cases are to stop.
• Sir Frederick Pollock, 1st Baronet, Phillips v.
Briard (1856), 4 W. R. 487.
• A man’s rights are to be determined by the Court,
not by his attorney or counsel. It is for want of re-
membering this that foolish people object to lawyers
that they will advocate a case against their own opin-
ions. A client is entitled to say to his counsel, I want
your advocacy, not your judgment; I prefer that of
the Court.
• Bramwell, B., Johnson v. Emerson (1871), L.
R. 6 Ex. 367.
• When counsel addresses an argument on the ground
of natural justice to a Court of law, he addresses it
to the wrong tribunal. It may be a good argument
for inducing the legislature to alter the law; but in a
Court of law all that we can deal with is the law of
the land as we find it.

2.2. EXTERNAL LINKS 7
• North, J., In re Gregson (1887), L. J. 57 C. D.
223.
• First settle what the case is, before you argue it.
• Wright, L.C.J., Trial of the Seven Bishops
(1688), 12 How. St. Tr. 342.
• Don't you foist in a proposition which is not allowed.
• Lord Mansfield, Grosser v. Miles (1774),
Lofft. 595.
• It seems to me that the argument of the defendant’s
counsel blows hot and cold at the same time.
• Buller, J., L'Anson v. Stuart (1787), 1 T. R.
753. Compare: ". . . . This would be blowing
hot and cold”. Lawrence, J., Berkeley Peer-
age Case (1811), 4 Camp. 412; “Hot and cold
were in one body fixt; And soft with hard, and
light with heavy mixt”, Dryden.
• Allegans contraria non est audiendus (Jenk. Cent.
16): “He is not to be heard who alleges things con-
tradictory to each other.” This elementary rule of
logic expresses, in technical language, the saying
that a man shall not be permitted to “blow hot and
cold” with reference to the same transaction, or in-
sist, at different times, on the truth of each of two
conflicting allegations, according to the promptings
of his private interest. Says the Satyr, if you have
gotten a trick of blowing hot and cold out of the
same mouth, I've e'en done with ye.
• L'Estrange.
• A grosser perversion of English justice it is impossi-
ble to imagine, and I should indeed be sorry if, under
any circumstances, it could be proved to be English
law.
• Justice Grantham, Burrows v. Rhodes [1899],
L. R. 1 Q. B. D. 823, said in rejoinder to coun-
sel for foisting a preposterous argument upon
the Court.
• It is the duty of all Courts to keep counsel to the
points before them.
• Pemberton, L.C.J., Fitzharris’ Case (1681), 8
How. St. Tr. 296.
• I wish to uphold counsel in the exercise of their dis-
cretion.
• Kekewich, J., In re Somerset; Somerset v. Earl
Poulett (1893), L. R. [1894], 1 Ch. 249.
• I cannot allow that the counsel is the agent of the
party.
• Best, C.J., Colledge v. Horn (1825), 3 Bing.
121.
• I always said, I will be my client’s advocate, not his
agent. To hire himself to any particular course, is a
position in which no member of the profession ought
to place himself.
• Pollock, C.B., Swinfen v. Lord Chelmsford
(1860), L. T. Rep. Vol. 2 (N. S.) 413.
2.2 External links

Chapter 3
Magistrates
Magistrates are officers of the state; in modern usage the
term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not
always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one
of the highest government officers and possessed both ju-
dicial and executive powers. Today, in common law sys-
tems, a magistrate has limited law enforcement and ad-
ministration authority. In civil law systems, a magistrate
might be a judge in a superior court; the magistrate’s court
might have jurisdiction over civil and criminal cases. A
related, but not always equivalent, term is chief magis-
trate, which historically can denote a political and admin-
istrative officer.
3.1 Quotes
(1904)
164.
• It is impossible to overrate the importance of keep-
ing the administration of justice by magistrates clear
from all suspicion of unfairness.
• Wills, J., Queen v. Huggins (1895), L. R. 1 Q.
B. D. [1895], p. 565.
• It is necessary for Courts of Justice to hold a strict
hand over summary proceedings before magistrates,
and I never will agree to relax any of the rules by
which they have been bound. Their jurisdiction is of
a limited nature, and they must shew that the party
was brought within it.
• Lord Kenyon, C.J., King v. Stone (1800), 1
East, 650.
• It is perfectly plain that either the Crown or any sub-
ject may intervene and inform a superior Court that
an inferior Court is exceeding its jurisdiction; and
it is the duty of the superior Court, when it is so
informed, to confine the inferior Court within the
limits of its jurisdiction.
• Sir G. Jessel, M.R., Jacobs v. Brett (1875), L.
R. 20 Eq. Ca. 5.
• Excess of jurisdiction is ground for prohibition.
• Brett, L.J., Martin v. Mackonochie (1879), L.
R. 4 Q. B. D. 755.
• I do not see to what purpose we exercise a superin-
tendency over all inferior jurisdictions, unless it be
to inspect their proceedings, and see whether they
are regular or not. I have often heard it said that
nothing shall be presumed one way or the other in
an inferior jurisdiction.
• John Pratt, L.C.J., Rex v. Cleg (1722), 1 Stra.
476.
• We presume a magistrate does right until the con-
trary appears.
• Laurence, J., King v. Despard (1798), 7 T. R.
744.
• It is of infinite importance to the public that the acts
of magistrates should not only be substantially good,
but also that they should be decorous.
• Lord Kenyon, C.J., The King v. Sainsbury
(1791), 4 T. R. 456.
• It is the more fit for the Supreme Court to give some
certain rule in it that may regulate and guide the
judgment of inferior Courts.
• Sir Robert Atkyns, L.C.B., Trial of Sir Ed.
Hales (1686), 11 How. St. Tr. 1213.
3.2 External links
8

Chapter 4
Judges
Judges are officials who presides over a court of law, ei-
ther alone or as part of a panel, and make determinations
about the applicability of the law to the facts presented.
4.1 Quotes
• Judges ought to remember that their office is jus
dicere, and not jus dare—to interpret law, and not
to make law, or give law.
• Francis Bacon, “Essay LVI: Of Judicature”,
Essays (1625), reported in Richard Whately,
Bacon’s Essays With Annotations (1857), p.
511.
• Judges ought to be more learned than witty, more
reverend than plausible, and more advised than con-
fident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and
proper virtue.
Essays (1625).
• Judges must beware of hard constructions and
strained inferences; for there is no worse torture than
the torture of laws. Specially in case of laws penal,
they ought to have care that that which was meant for
terror be not tuned into rigour; and that they bring
not upon the people that shower whereof the Scrip-
ture speaketh, Pluet super eos laqueos: for penal laws
pressed are a shower of snares upon the people.
Essays (1625).
• Non est interpretatio, sed divinatio, quae recedit a lit-
era.
• If we depart from the letter, we are not inter-
preting the law, but guessing at the law.
Essays, reported in Richard Whately, Bacon’s
Essays With Annotations (1857), p. 515.
• There is in each of us a stream of tendency, whether
you choose to call it philosophy or not, which
gives coherence and direction to thought and action.
Judges cannot escape that current any more than
other mortals. All their lives, forces which they do
not recognize and cannot name, have been tugging
at them — inherited instincts, traditional beliefs, ac-
quired convictions; and the resultant is an outlook on
life, a conception of social needs. … In this mental
background every problem finds it setting. We may
try to see things as objectively as we please. None
the less, we can never see them with any eyes except
our own.
• Benjamin N. Cardozo, The Nature of the Judi-
cial Process (1921), p. 12-13.
• The great tides and currents which engulf the rest of
men do not turn aside in their course and pass the
judges by.
• Benjamin N. Cardozo, The Nature of the Judi-
cial Process (1921), p. 168.
• The state in commissioning its judges has com-
manded them to judge, but neither in constitution
nor in statute has it formulated a code to define the
manner of their judging. The pressure of society in-
vests new forms of conduct in the minds of the mul-
titude with the sanction of moral obligation, and the
same pressure working upon the mind of the judge
invests them finally through his action with the sanc-
tion of the law.
• Benjamin N. Cardozo, The Paradoxes of Legal
Science (1928), p. 17.
• Times before number, condemned criminals had
waited for their last dawn. Yet until the very end
they could hope for a reprieve; human judges can
show mercy. But against the laws of nature, there is
no appeal.
• Arthur C. Clarke, The Wind From the Sun:
Stories of the Space Age (1972), p. 8.
9

10 CHAPTER 4. JUDGES
• One man is Judge, Jury, AND Executioner.
• Judge Dredd (film) tagline
• No judge writes on a wholly clean slate.
• Felix Frankfurter, The Commerce Clause
(1937), p. 12.
• Jefferson was against any needless official apparel,
but if the gown was to carry, he said: “For Heaven’s
sake discard the monstrous wig which makes the En-
glish judges look like rats peeping through bunches
of oakum.”
• Benjamin Harrison, The Constitution and Ad-
ministration of the United States of America
(1897), p. 320; quoting a comment by Thomas
Jefferson on judges’ apparel.
• When twenty years ago a vague terror went over the
earth and the word socialism began to be heard, I
thought and still think that fear was translated into
doctrines that had no proper place in the Consti-
tution or the common law. Judges are apt to be
naif, simple-minded men, and they need something
of Mephistopheles. We too need education in the
obvious—to learn to transcend our own convictions
and to leave room for much that we hold dear to be
done away with short of revolution by the orderly
change of law.
• Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., “Law and the
Court”, Speech at a dinner of the Harvard
Law School Association of New York, New
York City (February 15, 1913); in Speeches by
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1934), p. 102.
• I do not know whether it is the view of the Court that
a judge must be thick-skinned or just thick-headed,
but nothing in my experience or observation con-
firms the idea that he is insensitive to publicity. Who
does not prefer good to ill report of his work? And
if fame — a good public name — is, as Milton said,
the “last infirmity of noble mind”, it is frequently the
first infirmity of a mediocre one.
• Robert H. Jackson, Craig v. Harney, 331 U.
S. 367, 396 (1947).
• When we went to school we were told that we were
governed by laws, not men. As a result of that, many
people think there is no need to pay any attention to
judicial candidates because judges merely apply the
law by some mathematical formula and a good judge
and a bad judge all apply the same kind of law. The
fact is that the most important part of a judge’s work
is the exercise of judgment and that the law in a court
is never better than the common sense judgment of
the judge that is presiding.
• Robert H. Jackson, reported in Eugene Ger-
hart, America’s Advocate: Robert H. Jackson
(1958), p. 289.
• Something happens to a man when he puts on a ju-
dicial robe, and I think it ought to. The change is
very great and requires psychological change within
a man to get into an attitude of deciding other peo-
ple’s controversies, instead of waging them. It really
calls for quite a changed attitude. Some never make
it - and I am not sure I have.
• Robert H. Jackson, reported in Leon Fried-
man and Fred L. Israel, 4 The Justices of the
United States Supreme Court 1789-1969, 2563
(1969).
• As, for the safety of society, we commit honest ma-
niacs to Bedlam, so judges should be withdrawn
from their bench, whose erroneous biases are lead-
ing us to dissolution. It may indeed injure them in
fame or in fortune; but it saves the republic, which
is the first and supreme law.
• Thomas Jefferson, “Autobiography”, in Paul
L. Ford, ed., The Writings of Thomas Jeffer-
son (1892), vol. 1, p. 114 (1892).
• While the censorious man is most severe in judg-
ing others, he is invariably the most ready to repel
any animadversions made upon himself; upon the
principle well understood in medical circles, that the
feeblest bodies are always the most sensitive.
• Elias Lyman Magoon, reported in Josiah
Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning
Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 357.
• My suit has nothing to do with the assault, or bat-
tery, or poisoning, but is about three goats, which,
I complain, have been stolen, by my neighbor This
the judge desires to have proved to him, but you,
with swelling words and extravagant gestures, dilate
on the Battle of Cannæ, the Mithridatic war, and the
perjuries of the insensate Carthaginians, the Syllæ,
the Marii, and the Mucii It is time, Postumus, to say
something about my three goats
• Martial, Epigrams (c. 80-104 AD), Book VI.,
Epigram 19.
• Although the most acute judges of the witches and
even the witches themselves, were convinced of the
guilt of witchery, the guilt nevertheless was non-
existent. It is thus with all guilt.
• Friedrich Nietzsche, in Walter Kaufmann,
translator, The Portable Nietzsche (1954), p.
96-97.

4.1. QUOTES 11
• The hungry judges soon the sentence sign,
And wretches hang that jurymen may dine.
• Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock (1712),
Canto III, L. 21.
• Our judges will not continue to represent the di-
verse face of America if only the well-to-do or the
mediocre are willing to become judges.
• William Rehnquist, Statement before the Na-
tional Commission on Public Service, July 15,
2002.
• Honour is the mysticism of legality.
• Friedrich Schlegel, Aphorism 77, Ideas, as
translated in The Early Political Writings of the
German Romantics (1996) edited by Frederick
C. Beiser, p. 131
• Therefore I say again,
I utterly abhor, yea from my soul
Refuse you for my judge; whom, yet once more,
I hold my most malicious foe, and think not
At all a mend to truth.
• William Shakespeare, Henry VIII (c. 1613),
Act II. Sc 4. L 80.
• Heaven is above all yet, there sits a judge,
That no king can corrupt.
• William Shakespeare, Henry VIII (c. 1613),
Act III, scene 1, line 100.
• Angelo: Thieves for their robbery have authority
When judges steal themselves.
• William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (c.
1604), Act II, Sc 2, L 176.
• He who the sword of heaven will bear
Should be as holy as severe,
Pattern in himself to know,
Grace to stand, and virtue go;
More nor less to others paying
Than by self-offenses weighing
Shame to him, whose cruel striking
Kills for faults of his own liking!
• William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (c.
1604), Act III, Sc 2, L 275.
• Portia: To offend, and judge, are distinct offices
And of opposed natures.
• William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice (c.
1596), Act II, Sc. 9, L. 61.
• It doth appear you are a worthy judge,
You know the law; your exposition
Hath been most sound
• William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice (c.
1596), Act IV, Sc. 1, L. 236.
• What is my offence?
Where are the evidence that do accuse me?
What lawful quest have given their verdict up
Unto the frowning judge?
• William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act I, scene
4, line 187.
• In the public interest, therefore, it is better that we
lose the services of the exceptions who are good
Judges after they are seventy and avoid the presence
on the Bench of men who are not able to keep up
with the work, or to perform it satisfactorily.
• William Howard Taft, Popular Government:
Its Essence, Its Permanence and Its Perils
(1913), chapter 7, p. 159.
• Judges, like people, may be divided roughly into
four classes: judges with neither head nor heart—
they are to be avoided at all costs; judges with head
but no heart—they are almost as bad; then judges
with heart but no head—risky but better than the
first two; and finally, those rare judges who possess
both head and a heart—thanks to blind luck, that’s
our judge.
• Robert Traver, Anatomy of a Murder (1958),
chapter 17, p. 313–14.
• When the spotless ermine of the judicial robe fell on
John Jay, it touched nothing less spotless than itself.
• Daniel Webster, at a public dinner, New York
City (March 10, 1831); in The Writings and
Speeches of Daniel Webster (1903), vol. 2, p.
51. The dinner was given in Webster’s honor
by the citizens of New York, to thank him for
his defense of the Constitution in the previous
session of Congress.
• The Judge is nothing but the Law Speaking.
• Reported in Benjamin Whichcote, Anthony
Tuckney, Moral and Religious Aphorisms
(1753), p. 44, Aphorism #319.
4.1.1 Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia Of Practical
Quotations
Quotes reported in Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quota-
tions (1922), p. 410-411.

• The cold neutrality of an impartial judge.
• Edmund Burke Preface to Brissot’s Address.
Vol. V. P67.
• A justice with grave justices shall sit;
He praise their wisdom, they admire his wit.
• John Gay The Birth of the Squire. L 77.
• Art thou a magistrate? then be severe:
If studious, copy fair what tune hath blurr'd,
Redeem truth from his jaws: if soldier,
Chase brave employments with a naked sword
Throughout the world. Fool not, for all may have
If they dare try, a glorious life, or grave.
• George Herbert The Church Porch St 15.
• Male verum exammat omrus
Corruptus judex.
• A corrupt judge does not carefully search for
the truth.
• Horace, Satires, II, 2, 8.
• So wise, so grave, of so perplex'd a tongue,
And loud withal, that would not wag, nor scarce
Lie still without a fee.
• Ben Jonson, Volpone, Act I, Sc 1.
• Le devoir des juges est de rendre justice, leur métier
est de la différer; quelques tins savent leur devour, et
font leur métier.
• A judge’s duty is to grant justice, but his practice
is to delay it: even those judges who know their
duty adhere to the general practice.
• Jean de La Bruyere, Les Caracteres.
• Half as sober as a judge.
• Charles Lamb, Letter to Mr and Mrs Moxon
(August, 1833).
• Bisogna che i giudici siano assai, perchè pochi sem-
pre fanno a modo de' pochi.
• There should be many judges, for few will al-
ways do the will of few.
• Machiavelli, Dei Discorsi. I. 7.
• Judicis officium est ut res ita tempora rerum
Quserere.
• The judge’s duty is to inquire about the time, as
well as the facts.
• Ovid, Tristium, I., 1. 37.
• Since twelve honest men have decided the cause,
And were judges of fact, tho' not judges of laws.
• Pulteney, The Honest Jury, in the Craftsman,
Vol 5, 337. Refers to Sir Philip Yorke’s unsuc-
cessful prosecution of The Craftsman. (1792)
Quoted by Lord Mansfield.
• Si judicas, cognosce: si regnas, jube.
• If you judge, investigate, if you reign, com-
mand.
• Seneca the Younger, Medea. CXCIV.
• Four things belong to a judge: to hear courteously,
to answer wisely, to consider soberly, and to decide
impartially.
• Socrates.
• Judex damnatur cum nocens absolvitur.
• The judge is condemned when the guilty is ac-
quitted.
• Syrus, Maxims.
• Initia magistratuum nostrorum meliora, ferme finis
inclinat.
• Our magistrates discharge their duties best at
the beginning; and fall off toward the end.
• Tacitus, Annales (c. 110), XV, 31.
(1904)
126.
• Judges are philologists of the highest order.
• Sir Frederick Pollock, 1st Baronet, Ex parte
Davis (1857), 5 W. R. 523.
• The Judge does much better herein, than what a bare
grave grammarian, or logician, or other prudent man
could do.
• On the command of language of judges, in
Hale’s “Common Law,” Vol. I., (5th ed.).
• Judges, like Caesar’s wife, should be above suspi-
cion.
• Bowen, L.J., Leeson v. General Council of
Medical Education and Registration (1889), L.
R. 43 C. D. 385.

4.1. QUOTES 13
• What is the obligation upon which we proceed?
Upon the solemn sanction of an oath. Take away the
reverence for religion, and there is an end at once of
that obligation.
• Best, J., King v. Carlile (1821), 1 St. Tr. (N.
S.) 1046.
• I am willing to put the case into any shape you
choose.
• Lord Ellenborough, Richmond v. Heapy and
another (1816), 1 Starkie, 204.
• Common sense still lingers in Westminster Hall.
• William Henry Maule, J., Crosse v. Seaman
(1851), 11 C. B. 525.
• For the Judges of the Court I feel the most sincere
respect, esteem and affection. Never have there
presided in Westminster Hall magistrates more de-
votedly anxious to perform in a satisfactory manner
the duties of their high office.
• Lord Campbell’s Speeches, 406.
• To vindicate the policy of the law is no necessary
part of the office of a Judge.
• Sir William Scott, Evans v. Evans (1790), 1
Hagg. Con. Rep. 36.
• Little respect will be paid to our judgments if we
overthrow that one day, which we resolved the day
before.
• Pratt, J., Rex v. Inhabitants de Haughton
(1718), 1 Str. 83.
• I can't look to contingencies.
• Lord Kenyon, Sikes v. Marshal (1799), 2 Esp.
707.
• Our business is to determine of meum and tuum,
where the heats do not run so high, as in things be-
longing to the legislature.
• Powys, J., Ashby v. White (1703), 2 Raym.
946.
• We must go upon general principles.
• Lord Mansfield, Rex v. Cowle (1759), 2 Burr.
Part IV. 863.
• The expressions of every Judge must be taken with
reference to the case on which he decides, otherwise
the law will get into extreme confusion. That is what
we are to look at in all cases. The manner in which
he is arguing it, is not the thing; it is the principle he
is deciding.
• Beet, C.J., Richardson v. Mellish (1824), 2
Bing. 248.
• Aucupia verborum sunt judice indigna: Catching at
words is unworthy of a Judge.
• Sir Henry Hobart, 1st Baronet, C.J., Sheffield
v. Ratcliffe (1616), Hob. 343.
• Judges, in their judgments, ought to have a great re-
gard to the generality of the cases of the King’s sub-
jects, and to the inconveniences which may ensue
thereon, by the one way or the other. Judges, in giv-
ing their resolutions in cases depending before them,
are to judge of inconveniences as things illegal; and
an argument ah ineonvenienti is very strong to prove
that it is against law.
• Hyde, J., Manby v. Scott (1672), 1 Mod. 127.
• If my Lord Chief Justice do commit any person, and
set his name to the warrant, he does not use to add
to his name “Lord Chief Justice,” but he is known to
be so, without that addition. The lords do not use to
write themselves privy counsellors; they are known
to be so, as well as a Judge, who only writes his name
and does not use to make the addition of his office.
• Allybone, J., Trial of the Seven Bishops (1688),
12 How. St. Tr. 210. The Chief Justice
of England is called in old Histories Capitalis
Justicia et prima post Regem in Anglia Justieia.
Lamb Eirenarcha, p. 4, Precedence, &C, of
the Judges. Fortescue, 395.
• I am always afraid of quoting my own decisions; I do
not think it is the right thing for a judge to do, but
I often do refer to them when I can thereby avoid
repeating in different words what I have said before.
• Kekewich, J., Bolton Partners v. Lambert
(1889), L. R. 41 C. D. 300.
• Every Judge ought to exercise care, and it is not more
needed in one case than in another.
• Sir G. Jessel, M.R., Smith v. Smith (1875),
L. R. 20 Eq. Ca. 504. Abundant caidela
non nocet: Extreme care does no mischief.
—11 Co. 6. Festinatio justitice est noverca
infortunii: Hasty justice is the stepmother of
misfortune.—Hob. 97.
• In the hurry of business, the most able Judges are
liable to err.
• Lord Kenyon, C.J., Cotton v. Thurland
(1793), 5 T. R. 409.

• For myself I will say that the Judges invite discussion
of their acts in the administration of the law, and it
is a relief to them to see error pointed out, if it is
committed.
• Fitzgerald, J., Reg v. Sullivan (1868), 11 Cox,
C. C. 57. In The Protector v. Geering (1656),
Atkins, arguendo, says: “Errors are like Felons
and Traytors; any person may discover them,
they do caput gerere lupinum.”—Hardres, 85.
It is for the honour of a Court of justice to
avoid error in their judgments.—Dyer, 201.
See also Hob. 5.
• Vastly inferior as this Court is to the House of
Commons, considered as a body in the State, and
amenable as its members may be for illconduct in
their office to its animadversions and certainly are
to its impeachment before the Lords, yet, as a Court
of law, we know no superior but those Courts which
may revise our judgments for error; and in this re-
spect there is no common term of comparison be-
tween this Court and the House.
• Coleridge, J., Stockdale v. Hansard (1837),
3 St. Tr. (N. S.) 931. “I have yet to learn
that this Court is to be restrained by the dig-
nity or the power of anybody, however exalted,
from fearlessly, though respectfully, examin-
ing their reasonableness and justice, where the
rights of third parties, in litigation before us,
depend upon their validity”. Coleridge, J., id.
• The Judges are totally independent of the ministers
that may happen to be, and of the King himself.
• Lord Mansfield, Proceedings against the Dean
of St. Asaph (1783), 21 How. St. Tr. 1040.
• The act of a single Judge, unless adopted by the
Court to which he belongs, is of no validity. As
the Courts do not sit in vacation, many things are
done by the Judges individually; but their acts, when
recognised, become the acts of the Court.
• Richard Arden, 1st Baron Alvanley, Turner v.
Eyles (1803), 3 Bos..& Pull. 460, 461.
• I cannot properly give advice to anybody. It is very
often supposed Judges can give advice, and I there-
fore take this public opportunity of saying that a
Judge cannot do it.
• Bayley, J., Trial of Dewhurst and others
(1820), 1 St. Tr. (N. S.) 607.
• If we give an opinion, we can't give a judgment: you
can't come here for an opinion to us.
• Lord Mansfield, The King v. Inhabitants of the
West Riding of Yorkshire (1773), Lofft. 238.
• Many judges have avoided giving extra judicial
opinions.
• Heath, J., Aubert v. Maze (1801), 1 Bos. &
Pull. 375.
• Certainly the opinion of all the Judges of later times,
must have more weight than the extra-judicial opin-
ion of a single Judge at any former time.
• John Pratt, L.C.J., Layer’s Case (1722), 16
How. St. Tr. 112.
• I honour the King; and respect the people1: but,
many things acquired by the favour of either, are, in
my account, objects not worth ambition. I wish pop-
ularity, but it is that popularity which follows; not
that which is run after. It is that popularity which,
sooner or later, never fails to do justice to the pur-
suit of noble ends, by noble means. I will not do that
which my conscience tells me is wrong, upon this oc-
casion, to gain the huzzas of thousands, or the daily
praise of all the papers which come from the press:
I will not avoid doing what I think is right, though it
should draw on me the whole artillery of libels; all
that falsehood and malice can invent, or the credulity
of a deluded populace can swallow.1 I can say, with
a great magistrate, upon an occasion and under cir-
cumstances not unlike, “Ego hoc animo semper fui,
ut invidiam virtute partam, gloriam, haud infamiam,
putarem.”
• Lord Mansfield, Case of John Wilkes (1763),
19 How. St. Tr. 1112, 1113; 8. C. 4 Burr.
Part IV. 2562. Compare: “Fear God, Honour
the King.” 1 Peter ii., 17.
• My lords, I have heard of those who have expressed
more wishes for popularity than ever I felt. I have
heard it said, and I think it was in this Court, that
they 'would have popularity: but it should be that
popularity which follows, not that which is sought
after.' My lords, I am proud enough to despise them
both. If popularity should offer itself to me, I would
speedily take care to kick it away.
• In reference to Lord Mansfield's judgment
quoted above. See Horne’s Address in the
Court of King’s Bench, 20 How. St. Tr. 785.
• A popular Judge is a deformed thing :and plaudites
are fitter for players than for magistrates. Do good
to the people ; love them, and give them justice; but
let it be as the psalm says, 'nihil inde expectantes,'
looking for nothing, neither praise nor profit.

4.1. QUOTES 15
• Bacon, Speech in the Star Chamber before the
Summer Circuits (1617), Bacon’s Works, Vol.
VI., 141, 194, 244.
• Draw your learning out of your books, not out of
your brain. Mix well the freedom of your opinion
with the reverence of the opinion of your fellows.
Continue the studying of your books, and do not
spend on upon the old stock. Fear no man’s face, yet
turn not stoutness into bravery. Be a light to Jurors
to open their eyes, not a guide to lead them by the
noses. Affect not the opinion of pregnancy and ex-
pedition by an impatient and catching hearing of the
counsellors at the bar. Let your speech be with grav-
ity, as one of the sages of the law, and not talkative,
nor with impertinent flying out to show learning.
Contain the jurisdiction of your Court within the an-
cient mere-stones, without removing the mark.
• Bacon, Bacon’s Works, Vol. IV., 497; quoted
by Sir Robert Atkyns in Rex. v. Williams
(1695), 13 How. St. Tr. 1430.
• Sachez le vous qe nous ne froms nul tort a nul, pur
vous ne pur altre: Know you this, that we will do no
wrong to any one, neither for you nor for any one
else.
• Berrewik, J., Henry Le Moys v. A. (1302),
Y.B. 30 & 31 Ed. I., p. 158.
• The world will never allow any man that charac-
ter which he gives to himself by openly professing
it to those with whom he converseth. Wit, learn-
ing, valour, acquaintance, the esteem of good men,
will be known although we should endeavour to con-
ceal them, however they may pass unrewarded: but
I doubt our own bare assertions upon any of these
points, will be of very little avail, except in tempt-
ing the hearers to judge directly contrary to what we
advance.
• Swift, 4 Burrow, 2562—2563.
• Fear not to do right to all, and to deliver your verdicts
justly according to the laws; for feare is nothing but a
betraying of the succours that reason should afford:
and if you shall sincerely execute justice, be assured
of three things:
1. Though some may maligne you, yet God will give
you his blessing.
2. That though thereby you may offend great men,
and favourites, yet you shall have the favourable
kindness of the Almighty, and be his favourites.
3. And lastly, that in so doing, against all scan-
dalous complaints, and pregmatical devices against
you, God will defend you as with a shield: 'For thou,
Lord, wilt give a blessing unto the righteous, and
with thy favourable kindnesse wilt thou defend him,
as with a shield.'
• Edward Coke, 4 Inst., Epilogue.
• As long as we have to administer the law we must
do so according to the law as it is. We are not here
to make the law.
• John Duke Coleridge, C.J., Reg v. Solomons
(1890), 17 Cox, C. C. 93.
• We are sitting in a Court of law, and are bound to
give a legal decision.
• Grose, J., Doe v. Staple (1788), 2 T. R. 700.
• For God’s sake, do not put us on making law.
• Keating, L.CJ., Case of John Price and others
(1689), 12 How. St. Tr. 625.
• We cannot make a law, we must go according to the
law. That must be our rule and direction.
• Holt, C.J., Parkyns’ Case (1696), 13 How. St.
Tr. 72. Compare: “We cannot make laws”.
Holt, C.J., Reg. v. Nash (1703), 2 Raym. 990;
Powell, J., Queen v. Read (1706), Fortesc. 99.
• Our duty is simply to administer the law as we find
it.
• Grove, J., Scaltock v. Hartson (1875), L. R. 1
Com. PI. 109. Compare: “A Judge has noth-
ing to do but to administer the law as he finds
it”. Jessel, M.R., Bunting v. Sargent (1879),
L. R. 13 C. D. 335.
• The Judges do not make the law; they administer
it, and that however much they may disapprove or
dislike it.
• Lopes, L.J., The Queen v. Bishop of London
(1889), L. R. 24 Q. B. 246.
• A Judge cannot set himself above the law which he
has to administer, or make or mould it to suit the
exigencies of a particular occasion.
• Sir Alexander Cockburn, 12th Baronet, C.J.,
Martin v. Mackonochie (1878), L. R. 3 Q. B.
775.
• Judicis est jus dieere non dare: It is for the Judge to
administer, not to make laws.
• Lofft. 42.
• It is the duty of the Judge to decide according to law.
• Jessel, M.R., Smith v. Day (1882), L. R. 21 C.
D. 431.

• Though in many other countries every thing is left
in the breast of the Judge to determine, yet with us
he is only to declare and pronounce, not to make or
new-model, the law.
• Sir William Blackstone (1765), Commen-
taries, Book III., Chapter 25, p. 335.
• We have to administer the law whether we like it or
no.
• John Duke Coleridge, Reg. v. Ramsey (1886),
1 Cab. & Ellis’ Q. B. D. Rep. 148.
• The cause is before us; we are sworn to decide it ac-
cording to our notions of the law; we do not bring
it here; and, being here, a necessity is laid upon us
to deliver judgment; that judgment we can receive
at the dictation of no power: we may decide the
case erroneously; but we cannot be guilty of any con-
tempt in deciding it according to our consciences.
• Coleridge, J., Stockdale v. Hansard (1837), 3
St. Tr (N. S.) 945.
• If I am to pronounce a judgment at all in this or in
any other case, it must and shall be the judgment
of my own mind, applying the law of the land as I
understand it according to the best of my abilities,
and with regard to the oath which I have taken to
administer justice truly and impartially.
• Littledale, J., Stockdale v. Hansard (1837), 3
St. Tr.'(N. S.)911.
• I commend the Judge that seems fine and ingenious,
so it tend to right and equity. And I condemn them,
that either out of pleasure to shew a subtil wit will
destroy, or out of incuriousness or negligence will
not labour to support the act of the party by the art
or act of the law.
• Sir Henry Hobart, 1st Baronet, Pits v. James
(1614), Hob. Rep. 125.
• We do not conceive the law, but we know the law.
• Popham, C.J., Trial of Sir Walter Raleigh
(1603), 2 How. St. Tr. 18.
• I must lay down the law as I understand it, and as I
read it in books of authority.
• I am bound by my oath to abide by the law, and I
cannot suffer anybody to derogate from it.
• Rooke, J., Redhead alias Yorke’s Case (1795),
25 How. St. Tr. 1083.
• I will consider it upon the Precedents; upon the cir-
cumstances of this case; and upon the Reason of the
thing.
• Lord Mansfield, Rex v. Corporation of Wigan
(1758), 2 Burr. Part. IV., p. 784.
• We cannot alter the law, we are bound by our oaths
to proceed according to the law as it is at present.
• Holt, C.J., Parkyns’ Case (1696), 13 How. St.
Tr. 73.
• We must not be guilty of taking the law into our own
hands, and converting it from what it really is to what
we think it ought to be.
• Give your judgments, but give no reasons.
• Lord Mansfield.
• If no reason had been given, the authority might have
had more weight: but, to be sure, the reason is a false
one.
• Lord Mansfield, Ingle v. Wordsworth (1761),
3 Burr. Part IV. 1286.
• Reasons of public benefit and convenience weigh
greatly with me.
• Lord Hardwicke, Lawton v. Lawton (1743), 3
Atk. 16.
• As a rule, Judges give reasons, though in many of
the old cases the Judges gave no reasons1; but where
no reasons are given for a particular decision, it be-
comes extremely difficult for a Judge to follow it,
because he does not know the principle on which
the decision proceeded.
• Jessel, M.R., In re Merceron (1877), L. R. 7 C.
D. 187.
• A person who had been appointed to a Judgeship in
some distant part of the Empire, applied to his lord-
ship for advice how to act, as he was totally ignorant
of the law. Give your judgments, said Lord Mans-
field, but give no reasons. As you are a man of in-
tegrity, sound sense, and information, it is more than
an even chance that your judgments will be right; but
as you are ignorant of the law, it is ten to one that
your reasons will be wrong.

4.1. QUOTES 17
• A well-known anecdote of Lord Mansfield.
see Case of Benjamin Flower (1799), 27 How.
St. Tr. 1060.
• Wise and learned men do before they judge, labour
to reach to the depth of all the reasons of the case
in question, but in their judgments express not any:
and in troth if Judges should set down the reasons
and causes of their judgments within every record,
that immense labour should withdraw them from the
necessary services of the commonwealth, and their
records should grow to be like Elephantinl libri of
infinite length, and in mine opinion lose somewhat
of their present authority and reverence; and this is
also worthy for learned and grave men to imitate.
But mine advice is, that when soever a man is en-
forced to yield a reason of his opinion or judgment,
that then he set down all authorities, precedents, rea-
sons, arguments and inferences whatsoever that may
be probably applied to the case in question; for some
will be persuaded or drawn by one, and some by an-
other, according as the capacity or understanding of
the hearer or reader is.
• Coke, L.C.J., 2 Rep. vi.
• Chancellor Michael De La Pole did not at first resort
to the expedient of handing over the seal to a legal
keeper to act as his judicial deputy; and as he is said
to have performed well in the Court of Chancery,
he must have been like some of the military Chan-
cellors in our West India Islands, who by discretion,
natural good sense, taking hints from the clerks in
Court, and giving no reasons for their decrees (ac-
cording to the advice of Lord Mansfield to a military
man going to Jamaica to sit as Chancellor) have very
creditably performed the duties of their office.
• Lord Campbell, reported in Lives of the Lord
Chancelors, Vol. I., 3rd ed. 28.
• Judices non tenentwr exprimere eausam sententue
sute: Judges are not bound to explain the reason of
their sentence.
• Jenk. Cent. 75.
• The subject being unusual, I fear that I shall not
make myself intelligible, but I will do my endeav-
our, that the reasons of our judgment may be appre-
hended.
• Holt, C.J., B. v. Knight and Burton (1699), 1
Raym. 527.
• It is not only a justice due to the Crown and the
party, in every criminal cause where doubts arise, to
weigh well the grounds and reasons of the judgment;
but it is of great consequence to explain them with
accuracy and precision in open Court, especially if
the questions be of a general tendency, and upon top-
ics never before fully considered and settled, that the
criminal law of the land may be certain and known.
• Lord Mansfield, Case of John Wilkes, 19 St.
Tr. 1098.
• One does not like to differ from a man without
knowing the reasons which influenced him.
• Nathaniel Lindley, Baron Lindley, L.J., Ex
parte Strawbridge; In re Hickman (1883), L.
R. 25 C. D. 276.
• Let us consider the reason of the case. For nothing
is law that is not reason.
• Powell, J., Coggs v. Barnard (1703), 2 Ray.
911.
• I believe that an experienced lawyer may be, as it
were, instinctively right without at the moment being
able to give a good reason for his opinion.
• Lord Bramwell, Mills v. Armstrong (1888), 57
L. J. P. C. Cas. 70.
• I never give a judicial opinion upon any point, un-
til I think I am master of every material argument
and authority relative to it. It is not only a justice
due to the Crown and the party, in every criminal
cause where doubts arise, to weigh well the grounds
and reasons of the judgment; but it is of great con-
sequence, to explain them with accuracy and preci-
sion, in open Court; especially if the questions be
of a general tendency, and upon topics never before
fully considered and settled; that the criminal law of
the land may be certain and known.
• Lord Mansfield, Wilkes’ Case (1769), 4 Burr.
Part IV., 2549; 19 How. St. Tr. 1098.
• My brothers differ from me in opinion, and they all
differ from one another in the reasons of their opin-
ion; but notwithstanding their opinion, I think the
plaintiff ought to recover, and that this action is well
maintainable and ought to lie. I will consider their
reasons.
• Bolt, C.J., Ashby v. White (1703), 2 Raym.
950.
• The Court will not keep back their opinion without
having sufficient ground for doubting, and a neces-
sity of taking time to satisfy their doubts: on the
other hand, they will not give their opinions over-
hastily and prematurely, merely to gratify the hu-
mours or passions of mankind.

• Aston, J., Ashby v. White (1703), 2 Raym.
1097.
• As I find that my brothers are of a different opinion
from me, I submit to their authority.
• Eyre, L.C.J., Brandon v. Pate (1794), 2 H. B.
311.
• I am so unfortunate as to differ a second time from
my brethren, but I am bound by my opinion, and it
is my duty to deliver it.
• Eyre, L.C.J., Bencough v. Rossiter (1795), 2
H. B. 426.
• You shall have my judgment presently; but my
brothers are to speak first.
• Wright, L.C.J., Case of the Seven Bishops
(1688), 12 How. St. Tr. 274.
• My judgment ought to be given for the plaintiff :
but my brothers are all of another opinion, and so I
submit to it. The defendant must have his judgment.
• Holt, C.J., Philips v. Bury (1694), 2 T. fi. 358.
• For the sake of general convenience, I am not sorry
that the rest of the Court are of a contrary opinion.
• Grose, J., Bead v. Brookman (1789), 3 T. B.
162.
• Whatever doubts I had, I submit to the authority of
the other Judges.
• Rooke, J., Mitchell v. Cockburne (1794), 2 H.
B. 382.
• In the course which the case is now about to take
my opinion becomes worthless. I am bound to as-
sume that I am wrong in point of law. Your lord-
ships’ judgment settles the law finally, and in yield-
ing a willing obedience I have, at least, the palliation
for mistake in law that I have erred in company with
the Lord President, the Lord Justice Clerk, and four
other able and eminent Scotch Judges.
• Lord Fitzgerald, Cami v. Sime (1887), L. R.
12 App. Ca. 359.
• This is the first instance of a final difference of opin-
ion in this Court since I sat here. Every Order,
Bule, Judgment, and Opinion has hitherto beenn
unanimous. That unanimity never could have hap-
pened if we did not among ourselves communicate
our sentiments with great freedom; if we did not
form our judgments without any prepossession to
first thoughts; if we were not always open to con-
viction, and ready to yield to each other’s reasons.
We have all equally endeavoured at that unanimity,
upon this occasion: we have talked the matter over
several times. I have communicated my thoughts at
large in writing : and I have read the three arguments
which have been now delivered. In short, we have
equally tried to convince or be convinced: but, in
vain. We continue to differ. And whoever is right,
each is bound to abide by and deliver that opinion
which he has formed upon the fullest examination.
• Lord Mansfield, Millar v. Taylor (1769), i
Burr. Part IV. 2395.
• To be sure, it is a very important case, though very
imperfectly reported in the printed cases, which
make an impossibility, by making the senior Judge
speak first.
• Lord Mansfield, Morgan v. Jones (1773),
Lofft. 167.
• Whenever there is a real likelihood that the Judge
would, from kindred or any other cause, have a bias
in favour of one of the parties, it would be very
wrong in him to act, and we are not to be under-
stood to say that where there is a real bias of this
sort this Court would not interfere.
• Blackburn, J., Reg. v. Rand (1867), L. R. 1 Q.
B. 230.
• Pur dishonest Judgm't Judges povent estre punv. Mir-
ror de Justices report que 44 fueront pendus pur
cest cause: For dishonest judgment Judges may be
punished. Mirror of Justices reports that 44 were
hanged for this cause.
• Vaughan, J., Bushel’s Case (1670), Jones’s (Sir
Thos.) Rep. 15.
• If I was wrong, I should think it more honourable to
acknowledge and rectify any error that I should have
committed, than to justify and defend it.
• Lord Mansfield, Rex v. Wilkes (1770), 4 Burr.
Part IV. 2532.
• I think that it is a matter of public policy that, so far
as is possible, judicial proceedings shall not only be
free from actual bias or prejudice of the Judges, but
that they shall be free from the suspicion of bias or
prejudice.
• Fry, L.J., Leeson v. General Council of Medi-
cal Education, &c. (1889), L. R. 43 C. D. 390.
• It is impossible for us English lawyers, dealing with
the English language, to express our views except in
the technical language of our law.

4.1. QUOTES 19
• Kekewich, J., Lauri v. Renad (1892), L. R. 3
C. D. [1892], p. 413.
• I believe it is understood that though, when the
Judges are unanimous, the Chief Justice delivers the
opinion of the Court, yet the other justices are not
presumed to adopt and concur with every doctrine
that falls from him, in the course of that opinion.
• Douglas on Elections (ed. 1775), Introduction,
p. 39.
• Judges are not bound to travel beyond the facts stated
in cases, and, as a general rule, such a practice would
be inconvenient.
• Day, J., Durham County Council v. Chester-
le-Street Union (1890), 60 L. J. Rep. (N. S.)
Mag. Cas. 12.
• Judges are more to be trusted as interpreters of the
law than as expounders of what is called public pol-
icy.
• Cave, J., In re Mirans; Ex parte Official Re-
ceiver (1891), 60 L. J. Rep. (N. S.) Q. B. 399.
• In former years, and down to times within my recol-
lection, Judges of what used to be the common law
Courts of this realm delighted in applying, rigidly
and strictly, a series of rules and maxims which their
predecessors had delighted themselves in devising,
although they did not always commend themselves
to the apprehension of the million.
• James, L.J., Ashworth v. Outram (1877), 5 L.
R. Ch. D. 941.
• I think we ought to adhere to those ancient forms
which have been perfected by the wisdom of ages
and confirmed in their utility by the experience of
many centuries.
• Best, J., Orton v. Butler (1822), 2 Chit. Rep.
350.
• If I must either attribute to some Judges a reverence
more for the letter than the spirit, caution carried too
far, an over-anxiousness to keep themselves within
the most clearly - defined limits of their authority,
or ascribe to others an arbitrary and unwarrantable
assumption of legislative power, I elect the former.
• Knight-Bruce, L.J., Boyse v. Rossborough
(1854), 23 L. J. Rep. Part 5 (N. S.) Ch., p.
331.
• I am not now going, and I do not suppose that any
Judge will ever do so, to lay down a rule which, so
to say, will tie the hands of the Court.
• Pearson, J., Holland v. Worley (1884), L. R.
26 C. D. 584.
• I am far from being such a Judge as shall lay any
intolerable yoke upon any one’s neck.
• Holt, C.J., Philips v. Bury (1694), 2 T. R. 358.
• In the judgments which Judges pronounce, this is in-
evitable, that, having their minds full, not only of the
cases before them, but of the principles involved in
the cases which have been referred to, it very often
happens that a Judge, in stating as much as is neces-
sary to decide the case before him, does not express
all that may be said upon the subject. That leaves
the judgment open sometimes to misconstruction,
and enables ingenious advocates, by taking out cer-
tain passages, to draw conclusions which the Judge
never meant to be drawn from the words he used.
• Sir James Bacon, V.-C, Green’s Case (1874),
L. R. 18 Eq. Ca. 433.
• It certainly is very hard upon a Judge, if a rule which
he generally lays down, is to be taken up and carried
to its full extent. This is sometimes done by coun-
sel, who have nothing else to rely on; but great cau-
tion ought to be used by the Court in extending such
maxims to cases which the Judge who uttered them
never had in contemplation. If such is the use to be
made of them, I ought to be very cautious how I lay
down general maxims from this bench.
• Mansfield, C.J., Brisbane v. Dacres (1813), 5
Taunt. 162.
• In my opinion it is very important that one Judge
should not attempt to draw fine distinctions between
cases before him and similar cases decided by an-
other Judge. Practitioners are much embarrassed by
minute differences between the decisions of differ-
ent Judges, and it is very important to follow a line
of procedure which has been already laid down.
• Fry, J., In re Symons; Luke v. Tonkin (1882),
L. R. 21 C. D. 761.
• If once our Courts of Justice come to be awed or
swayed by vulgar noise, and if judges and juries
should manage themselves so as would best comply
with the humour of the times, it is falsely said that
men are tried for their lives or fortunes; they live by
chance, and enjoy what they have as the wind blows,
and with the same certainty. Let us pursue the plot
a God’s name, and not baulk anything where there
is danger or suspicion upon reasonable grounds; but
not so overdo it, as to show our zeal, we will pretend
to find what is not; nor stretch one thing beyond what
it will bear, to reach another.

• Scroggs, L.C.J., Speech on the first day of
Michaelmas Term (1679), 16 How. St. Tr.
242.
• It is not fair to criticise every line and letter of a
summing-up which has been delivered by a Judge in
trying a case, especially when there is a somewhat
imperfect record of it.
• William Wood, 1st Baron Hatherley, Pruden-
tial Assurance Co. v. Edmonds (1877), L. R.
2 App. Ca. 494.
• I will not be influenced by any judgment that is
founded either on fear or favour.
• Willes, L.C.J., Welles v. Trahern (1740),
Willes’ Rep. 240.
• The character of the Judges is public property, and
if they have done anything amiss, they ought to be
censured. But if not, their characters ought to be
respected; otherwise the most mischievous conse-
quences will arise to the public.
• Lord Kenyon, Holt’s Case (1793), 22 How. St.
Tr. 1234.
• We that do sit here, do move in a sphere, and should
be like the primum mobile, according to whom all
others are to steer their course; and Judges them-
selves must move steadily upon their right poles, as
I hope this Court will. What Judge soever he be that
is elevated by popular applause,1 or animated by the
contrary, to accumulate honour, is fitter to live “in
fceee Romuli guam in politia Angliee.” Nor will I
lose time in remembering the first oath of a Judge,
who should expel all by-respects, and speak his con-
science. I hope none of us forget the duty we owe to
God, to the King, and to the commonwealth, and to
ourselves. I shall endeavour to satisfy my conscience
in all that I can say. And they forget their duty to the
first, and humanity towards us, that say or think the
contrary of any one of us. Some of us have fortunes
and posterities, and therein have given hostages to
the commonwealth. . . . Those that want those
blessings, want those temptations that make dream
of, or hunt for honour or riches, to perpetuate their
names and families; to them nothing can be more
precious than the balm of integrity, which will pre-
serve their names and memories. It cannot be pre-
sumed, but we will speak our consciences, since we
well know shortly, as the psalmist says, " Corrup-
tion shall say, I am thy father, and the worm, I am
thy mother.”
• Finch, L.C J., Hampden’s Case (1637), 3 How.
St. Tr. 1217.
• I will tell you we are bound to be of counsel with you,
in point of law; that is, the Court, my brethren and
myself, are to see that you suffer nothing for your
want of knowledge in matter of law.
• Hyde, C. J., Twyn’s Case (1663), 6 How. St,
Tr. 516.
• I am obliged to watch as he has no counsel
• Bayley, J., King v. Knowles (1820), 1 St. Tr.
(N. S.) 505.
• I have been reminded that I sit here as counsel for
the defendant. I certainly do so, so far as to inter-
pose between him and the counsel for the prosecu-
tion, and to see that no improper use of the law is
made against him, and that no improper evidence is
given to the jury: but the Judge has another task to
perform, which is that of assisting the jury in the
administration of justice.
• Lord Kenyon, Wakefield’s Case (1799), 27
How. St. Tr. 736.
• It is sometimes said—erroneously, as I think—that
the Judge should be counsel for the prisoner; but at
least he must take care that the prisoner is not con-
victed on any but legal evidence.
• Wills, J., Reg. v. Gibson (1887), 18 Q. B. D.
537; 16 Cox, C. C. 181.
• By our rules we cannot receive a letter from a friend.
• Bayley, J., King v. Knowles (1820), 1 St. Tr.
(N. S.) 515.
• Gentlemen, I speak for myself as well as for you:
I never read anything about what may come before
me in a Court of Justice; I keep my mind free from
everything of the kind. There is often a necessity for
me to look into the law: but I never suffer my mind
to be biassed by reports, or such papers or pamphlets
as are written with a view to pervert justice.
• Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, C.J., Wilkes’
Case (1763), 19 How. St. Tr. 1410.
• I pass over many anonymous letters I have received.
Those in print are public: and some of them have
been brought judicially before the Court. Whoever
the writers are, they take the wrong way. I will do
my duty, unawed. What am I to fear? That mendax
infamia from the press, which daily coins false facts
and false motives? The lies of calumny carry no ter-
ror to me. I trust, that my temper of mind, and the
colour and conduct of my life, have given me a suit
of armour against these arrows.
• Lord Mansfield, Wilkes’ Case (1763), 19 How.
St. Tr. 1112.

4.2 External links

Chapter 5
Employment
Employment is a relationship between two parties, usu-
ally based on a contract, one being the employer and the
other being the employee.
5.1 Quotes
• One of the best maxims in determining our course in
life is, to select, at the outset, that in which virtue and
principle will be least likely to be put to a test, and
in which, from the nature of the calling, a man may
bring around him such associations and influences
as will be an auxiliary in keeping him in the path of
virtue.
• Albert Barnes, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss
Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Bril-
liant Writers (1895), p. 437.
• I heard my mother remark occasionally: 'A man who
accepts a job under anyone is a slave.' That im-
pression became so indelibly fixed that even after
my marriage I refused all positions. I met expenses
by investing my family endowment in land. Moral:
Good and positive suggestions should instruct the
sensitive ears of children. Their early ideas long re-
main sharply etched.
• Yukteswar Giri Autobiography of a Yogi
(1946)
• In the interests of the ideal of maximum output, [our
society] judges men by their fitness for jobs, not jobs
by their fitness for men.
• John Passmore, The Perfectibility of Man, p.
280
Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations Quotes
reported in Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations
(1922), p. 565-66.
• I hold every man a debtor to his profession; from the
which as men of course do seek to receive counte-
nance and profit, so ought they of duty to endeavor
themselves, by way of amends, to be a help and or-
nament thereunto.
• Bacon, Maxims of the Law, Preface.
• Quam quisque novit artem, in hac se exerceat.
• Translation: Let a man practise the profession
which he best knows.
• Cicero, Tusculanarum Disputationum, I. 18.
• The ugliest of trades have their moments of pleasure.
Now, if I were a grave-digger, or even a hangman,
there are some people I could work for with a great
deal of enjoyment.
• Douglas Jerrold, Jerrold’s Wit, “Ugly Trades”.
• And sure the Eternal Master found
The single talent well employ'd.
• Samuel Johnson, On the Death of Robert Levet,
Stanza 7.
• The hand of little employment hath the daintier
sense.
• William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act V, Scene 1,
line 77.
• Thus Nero went up and down Greece and challenged
the fiddlers at their trade. Æropus, a Macedonian
king, made lanterns; Harcatius, the king of Parthia,
was a mole-catcher; and Biantes, the Lydian, filed
needles.
• Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living, Chapter I, Secion
I, “Rides far Employing Our Time”.
5.2 References
• Klopsch, Louis, 1852-1910 (1896). Many Thoughts
of Many Minds.
5.3 External links
22

Chapter 6
Unemployment
Unemployment (or joblessness) occurs when people are
without work and actively seeking work. The unemploy-
ment rate is a measure of the prevalence of unemploy-
ment and it is calculated as a percentage by dividing the
number of unemployed individuals by all individuals cur-
rently in the labor force. During periods of recession, an
economy usually experiences a relatively high unemploy-
ment rate.
6.1 Quotes
• When a great many people are unable to find work,
unemployment results.
• Attributed to Calvin Coolidge, in Stanley
Walker, City Editor (1934), p. 131. Reported
as unverified in Respectfully Quoted: A Dictio-
nary of Quotations (1989).
• Unemployment, of course, sends the economy into
a recession, creating more unemployment. Ironi-
cally, unemployment hurts women more than men.
Feminists argue that’s because of sex discrimina-
tion: women are the last to be hired and the first
to be fired. Correct on the outcome; wrong on the
reason. We hire first what we need most, and we
fire first what we need least. That’s why you hire
the garbage collector first, and fire him last. Men
may be hired first and fired last because more men
are willing to do society’s dirty work and hazardous
work for a lower price.
• Warren Farrell, Why Men Earn More (2005),
p. 212.
• But the time will come when New England will be
as thickly peopled as old England. Wages will be
as low, and will fluctuate as much with you as with
us. You will have your Manchesters and Birming-
hams; and, in those Manchesters and Birminghams,
hundreds of thousands of artisans will assuredly be
sometimes out of work. Then your institutions will
be fairly brought to the test.
• Thomas Babington Macaulay, letter to Henry
Stephens Randall (May 23, 1857); in Thomas
Pinney, ed., The Letters of Thomas Babing-
ton Macaulay (1981), vol. 6, p. 95. Pin-
ney notes that the letter “was published in
part as early as 1860 and has frequently been
reprinted since”, but deems a February 1877
publication in Harper’s Magazine as “the place
of first full publication so far as I have been
able to determine”.
• Throughout the Keynesian and post-Keynesian era,
the inexorable laws of economics have not changed.
Unemployment still is, and always has been, a cost
phenomenon. A worker whose employ ment adds
valuable output and is profitable to his employer
can always find a job. A worker whose employ-
ment inflicts losses is destined to be unemployed.
As long as the earth is no paradise, there is an infinite
amount of work to be done. But if a worker pro-
duces only $2 per hour, while the government de-
crees a minimum wage of $2.30 an hour plus sizable
fringe costs, he cannot be employed. For a business-
man to hire him would mean capital loss and waste.
In other words, any compulsion, be it by government
or union, to raise labor costs above those determined
by the marginal productivity of labor, creates insti-
tutional unemployment.
• Hans F. Sennholz, "Unemployment Is Rising,”
The Freeman: A Monthly Journal of Ideas on
Liberty (Irvington-on-Hudson, N. Y.: Founda-
tion for Economic Education, 1 July 1977), p.
390.
6.2 External links
• Quotes about Unemployment
23

Chapter 7
Labor
Towards this fine honor of a trade converged all the finest, all
the most noble sentiments—dignity, pride. ... In those days a
workman did not know what it was to solicit. It is the bourgeoisie
who, turning the workmen into bourgeois, have taught them to
solicit. ~ Charles Péguy
Labor is effort expended on a task.
Arranged alphabetically by author or source:
A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P ·
Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z
In published Sources:
·Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quota-
tions·Dictionary of Legal Quotations
See also · External links
7.1 A
• No single event has influenced the history of labor in
Illinois, the United States, and even the world, more
than the Chicago Haymarket Affair. It began with
a rally on May 4, 1886, but the consequences are
still being felt today. Although the rally is included
in American history textbooks, very few present the
event accurately or point out its significance.
• William J. Adelman “The Haymarket Affair”.
illinoislaborhistory.org. Retrieved March 19,
2014.
7.2 B
• Measure not the work
Until the day’s out and the labour done,
Then bring your gauges.
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh
(1857), Book V.
• Such hath it been—shall be—beneath the sun
The many still must labour for the one.
• Lord Byron, The Corsair (1814), Canto I,
Stanza 8.
7.3 C
• Labor is discovered to be the grand conqueror, en-
riching and building up nations more surely than the
proudest battles.
• William Ellery Channing, War (1816).
• The consistent anarchist, then, should be a social-
ist, but a socialist of a particular sort. He will not
only oppose alienated and specialized labor and look
forward to the appropriation of capital by the whole
body of workers, but he will also insist that this ap-
propriation be direct, not exercised by some elite
force acting in the name of the proletariat.
• Noam Chomsky, Notes On Anarchism (1970).
24

7.6. G 25
• I believe that every employee, from the CEO suite
to the factory floor, contributes to a business’ suc-
cess, so everybody should share in the rewards – es-
pecially those putting in long hours for little pay.
• Hillary Clinton, speech in Warren, Michigan.
Transcript by Newsweek (August 11, 2016)
7.4 E
• Personally, I have nothing against work, particu-
larly when performed, quietly and unobtrusively, by
someone else. I just don't happen to think it’s an
appropriate subject for an “ethic.”
• Barbara Ehrenreich, “Goodbye to the Work
Ethic” (1988), in The Worst Years of Our
Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed
(1991).
• He who understands the limits of life knows how
easy it is to procure enough to remove the pain of
want and make the whole life complete and perfect.
Hence he has no longer any need of things which are
not to be won save by labor and conflict.
• Epicurus, “Principal Doctrines,” 21
7.5 F
• Every employee in an undertaking, then, takes a
larger or smaller share in the work of administration,
and has, therefore, to use and display his adminis-
trative faculties. This is why we often see men, who
are specially gifted, gradually rise from the lowest
to the highest level of the industrial hierarchy, al-
though they have only had an elementary education.
But young men, who begin practical work as engi-
neers soon after leaving industrial schools, are in a
particularly good position both for learning admin-
istration and for showing their ability in this direc-
tion, for in administration, as in all other branches
of industrial activity, a man’s work is judged by its
results.
• Henri Fayol, (1900) Henri Fayol addressed
his colleagues in the mineral industry 23 June
1900.
• The idea that to make a man work you've got to
hold gold in front of his eyes is a growth, not an ax-
iom. We've done that for so long that we've forgot-
ten there’s any other way.
• F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Amory Blaine” in This
Side of Paradise (1920) Bk. 2, Ch. 5.
7.6 G
• For as labor cannot produce without the use of land,
the denial of the equal right to the use of land is
necessarily the denial of the right of labor to its own
produce.
• Henry George, Progress and Poverty (1879),
Book VII, Ch. 1.
7.7 H
• If little labour, little are our gaines:
Man’s fortunes are according to his paines.
• Robert Herrick, Hesperides (1648), “No
Paines, No Gaines”.
• Our fruitless labours mourn,
And only rich in barren fame return.
• Homer, Odessey (c. 7th century BC); tr.
Alexander Pope, The Odyssey of Homer
(1725), Book X, line 46.
• To labour is the lot of man below;
And when Jove gave us life, he gave us woe.
• Homer, Iliad (c. 7th century BC); tr.
Alexander Pope, The Iliad of Homer (1715–
1720), Book X, Line 78.
• The highest reward that God gives us for good work,
is the ability to do better work.
• Elbert Hubbard, The Note Book of Elbert Hub-
bard (1927), p. 125.
7.8 I
• I've had the best possible chance of learning that
what the working-classes really need is to be al-
lowed some part in the direction of public affairs,
Doctor—to develop their abilities, their understand-
ing and their self-respect.
• Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of the People, English
adaptation by Max Faber (1970), act II, p. 28.
Mr. Hovstad is speaking.
7.9 L
• I agree with you, Mr. Chairman, that the working
men are the basis of all governments, for the plain
reason that they are the more numerous, and as you

26 CHAPTER 7. LABOR
added that those were the sentiments of the gen-
tlemen present, representing not only the working
class, but citizens of other callings than those of the
mechanic, I am happy to concur with you in these
sentiments, not only of the native born citizens, but
also of the Germans and foreigners from other coun-
tries.
• Abraham Lincoln, speech to Germans at
Cincinnati, Ohio (February 12, 1861) [Com-
mercial version]; in Roy P. Basler, ed., The
Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (1953),
vol. 4, p. 202.
• In the early days of the world, the Almighty said to
the first of our race “In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread"; and since then, if we except the
light and the air of heaven, no good thing has been,
or can be enjoyed by us, without having first cost
labour. And inasmuch [as] most good things are
produced by labour, it follows that [all] such things
of right belong to those whose labour has produced
them. But it has so happened in all ages of the world,
that some have labored, and others have, without
labour, enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits. This
is wrong, and should not continue. To [secure] to
each labourer the whole product of his labour, or as
nearly as possible, is a most worthy object of any
good government.
• Abraham Lincoln, fragments of a tariff discus-
sion (c. December 1, 1847); in Roy P. Basler,
ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln
(1953), vol. 1, p. 407–8.
• It is better, then, to save the work while it is be-
gun. You have done the labor; maintain it—keep
it. If men choose to serve you, go with them; but
as you have made up your organization upon princi-
ple, stand by it; for, as surely as God reigns over you,
and has inspired your mind, and given you a sense of
propriety, and continues to give you hope, so surely
will you still cling to these ideas, and you will at last
come back after your wanderings, merely to do your
work over again.
• Abraham Lincoln, speech at Chicago, Illinois
(July 10, 1858); in Roy P. Basler, ed., The Col-
lected Works of Abraham Lincoln (1953), vol.
2, p. 498.
• Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital.
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never
have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is
the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher
consideration.
• Abraham Lincoln, First State of the Union Ad-
dress (December 3, 1861); in Roy P. Basler,
ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln
(1953), vol. 5, p. 52.
• The most notable feature of a disturbance in your
city last summer, was the hanging of some working
people by other working people. It should never be
so. The strongest bond of human sympathy, out-
side of the family relation, should be one uniting all
working people, of all nations, and tongues, and kin-
dreds.
• Abraham Lincoln, reply to New York Work-
ingmen’s Democratic Republican Association
(March 21, 1864); in Roy P. Basler, ed., The
Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (1953),
vol. 7, p. 259.
• From labor there shall come forth rest.
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “To a Child”,
line 162; in The Belfry of Bruges and Other
Poems (1845).
7.10 M
• Capital is dead labor,that vampire-like, only lives by
sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more
labor it sucks.
• Karl Marx, das Kapital, Vol. I, Ch. 10, Sec-
tion 1, p. 257.
7.11 P
• Towards this fine honor of a trade converged all the
finest, all the most noble sentiments—dignity, pride.
Never ask anything of anyone, they used to say. …
In those days a workman did not know what it was to
solicit. It is the bourgeoisie who, turning the work-
men into bourgeois, have taught them to solicit.
• Charles Péguy, Basic Verities, A. & J. Green,
trans. (New York: 1943), p. 83.
• The man who by his labour gets
His bread, in independent state,
Who never begs, and seldom eats,
Himself can fix or change his fate.
• Matthew Prior (1664–1721), The Old Gentry
(posthumous), St. 5.
7.12 S
• What would you do if your country’s welfare de-
pended on labor? When a ship is in a storm it re-
quires one captain.

7.15. HOYT’S NEW CYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL QUOTATIONS 27
• Fritz Sauckel, To Leon Goldensohn, February
9, 1946, from “The Nuremberg Interviews” by
Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History
(2004), p. 209.
7.13 T
• Nothing tends to materialize man and to deprive his
work of the faintest trace of mind more than the ex-
treme division of labor.
• Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in Amer-
ica, vol. 1, chapter 18 (1835).
7.14 W
• Labor in this country is independent and proud. It
has not to ask the patronage of capital, but capital
solicits the aid of labor.
• Daniel Webster, A discourse, delivered at Ply-
mouth, December 22, 1820. In commemora-
tion of the ﬁrst settlement of New-England.
• They are usually denominated labor-saving ma-
chines, but it would be more just to call them labor-
doing machines.
• Daniel Webster, remarks in the Senate (March
12, 1838); The Writings and Speeches of
Daniel Webster (1903), vol. 8, p. 177.
7.15 Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia Of
Practical Quotations
Quotes reported in Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia Of Prac-
tical Quotations (1922), p. 423-25.
• Labour in vain; or coals to Newcastle.
• Anon. In a sermon to the people of Queen-
Hith. Advertised in the Daily Courant, Oct. 6,
1709. Published in Paternoster Row, London.
“Coals to Newcastle,” or “from Newcastle,”
found in Heywood—If you Know Not Me,
Part II. (1606). Gaunt—Bills of Mortality.
(1661). Middleton—Phœnix, Act I, scene 5.
R. Thoresby—Correspondence. Letter June
29, 1682. Owls to Athens. (Athenian coins
were stamped with the owl.) Aristophanes—
Aves. 301. Diogenes Laertius—Lives of Emi-
nent Philosophers. Plato, XXXII. You are im-
porting pepper into Hindostan. From the Bus-
tan of Sadi.
• Qui laborat, orat.
• He who labours, prays.
• Attr. to St. Augustine.
• Qui orat et laborat, cor levat ad Deum cum manibus.
• He who prays and labours lifts his heart to God
with his hands.
• St. Bernard, Ad sororem. A similar expression
is found in the works of Gregory the Great—
Moral in Libr. Job, Book XVIII. Also in
Pseudo-Hieron, in Jerem., Thren. III. 41. See
also “What worship, for example, is there not
in mere washing!" Carlyle—Past and Present,
Chapter XV., referring to “Work is prayer”.
• Not all the labor of the earth
Is done by hardened hands.
• Will Carleton, A Working Woman.
• And yet without labour there were no ease, no rest,
so much as conceivable.
• Thomas Carlyle, Essays, Characteristics.
• They can expect nothing but their labor for their
pains.
• Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, Author’s
Preface. Edward Moore, The Boy and the
Rainbow.
• Labor is discovered to be the grand conqueror, en-
riching and building up nations more surely than the
proudest battles.
• William Ellery Channing, War.
• Vulgo enim dicitur, Jucundi acti labores: nec male
Euripides: concludam, si potero, Latine: Græcum
enim hunc versum nostis omnes: Suavis laborum est
præteritorum memoria.
• It is generally said, “Past labors are pleasant,”
Euripides says, for you all know the Greek
verse, “The recollection of past labors is pleas-
ant.”
• Cicero, De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, II.
32.
• A truly American sentiment recognises the dignity
of labor and the fact that honor lies in honest toil.
• Grover Cleveland, letter accepting the nomi-
nation for President. Aug. 18, 1884.

28 CHAPTER 7. LABOR
• American labor, which is the capital of our work-
ingmen.
• Grover Cleveland, Annual Message. Dec.,
1885.
• When admirals extoll'd for standing still,
Of doing nothing with a deal of skill.
• William Cowper, Table Talk, line 192.
• Honest labour bears a lovely face.
• Thomas Dekker, Patient Grissell (1599), Act I,
scene 1.
• Labour itself is but a sorrowful song,
The protest of the weak against the strong.
• Frederick William Faber, The Sorrowful
World.
• It is so far from being needless pains, that it may
bring considerable profit, to carry Charcoals to New-
castle.
• Thomas Fuller, Pisgah, Sight of Palestine (Ed.
1650), p. 128. Worthies, p. 302. (Ed. 1661).
• For as labor cannot produce without the use of land,
the denial of the equal right to the use of land is
necessarily the denial of the right of labor to its own
produce.
• Henry George, Progress and Poverty, Book
VII, Chapter I.
• How blest is he who crowns in shades like these,
A youth of labour with an age of ease.
• Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village
(1770), line 99.
• Vitam perdidi laboricose agendo.
• I have spent my life laboriously doing nothing.
• Quoted by Grotius on his death bed.
• If little labour, little are our gaines:
Man’s fortunes are according to his paines.
• Robert Herrick, Hesperides, No Paines, No
Gaines.
• To labour is the lot of man below;
And when Jove gave us life, he gave us woe.
• Homer, The Iliad, Book X, line 78. Pope’s
translation.
• Our fruitless labours mourn,
And only rich in barren fame return.
• Homer, The Odyssey, Book X, line 46. Pope’s
translation.
• With fingers weary and worn,
With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat in unwomanly rags,
Plying her needle and thread.
• Thomas Hood, Song of the Shirt,,.
• Qui studet optatam cursu contingere metam
Multa tulit fecitque puer, sudavit et alsit.
• He who would reach the desired goal must,
while a boy, suffer and labor much and bear
both heat and cold.
• Horace, Ars Poetica (18 BC), CCCCXII.
• O laborum
Dulce lenimen.
• O sweet solace of labors.
• Horace, Carmina, I. 32. 14.
• In silvam ligna ferre.
• To carry timber into the wood.
• Horace, Satires, I. 10. 24.
• Cur quæris quietem, quam natus sis ad laborem?
• Why seekest thou rest, since thou art born to
labor?
• Thomas á Kempis, De Imitatione Christi, II.
10. 1.
• The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while l heir companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Birds of Pas-
sage, The Ladder of St. Augustine, Stanza 10.
• Taste the joy
That springs from labor.
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Masque of
Pandora, Part VI. In the Garden. “From labor
there shall come forth rest."--Longfellow—To
a Child, line 162.
• Labor est etiam ipsa voluptas.
• Labor is itself a pleasure.

7.15. HOYT’S NEW CYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL QUOTATIONS 29
• Marcus Manilius, Astronomica, IV. 155.
• Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the world.
• Edwin Markham, The Man with the Hoe.
Written after seeing Millet’s picture “An-
gelus”.
• But now my task is smoothly done,
I can ﬂy, or I can run.
• John Milton, Comus (1637), line 1,012.
• Lo! all life this truth declares,
Laborare est orare;
And the whole earth rings with prayers.
• Miss Mulock, Labour is Prayer, Stanza 4.
• Labor is life! 'Tis the still water faileth;
Idleness ever despaireth, bewaileth;
Keep the watch wound, for the dark rust assaileth.
• Frances S. Osgood, To Labor is to Pray.
• Labor is rest—from the sorrows that greet us;
Rest from all petty vexations that meet us,
Rest from sin-promptings that ever entreat us,
Rest from the world-sirens that hire us to ill.
Work—and pure slumbers shall wait on thy pillow;
Work—thou shalt ride over Care’s coming billow;
Lie not down wearied 'neath Woe’s weeping willow!
Work with a stout heart and resolute will!
• Frances S. Osgood, To Labor is to Pray.
• Dum vires annique sinunt, tolerate labores.
Jam veniet tacito curva senecta pede.
• While strength and years permit, endure labor;
soon bent old age will come with silent foot.
• Ovid, Ars Amatoria, II. 669.
• And all labour without any play, boys,
Makes Jack a dull boy in the end.
• H. A. Page (pseudonym of Alexander Hay
Japp), Vers de Société.
• Grex venalium.
• The herd of hirelings. (A venal pack.)
• Plautus, Cistellaria, IV. 2. 67.
• Oleum et operam perdidi.
• I have lost my oil and my labor. (Labored in
vain.)
• Plautus, Pœnulus, I. 2. 119.
• The man who by his labour gets
His bread, in independent state,
Who never begs, and seldom eats,
Himself can ﬁx or change his fate.
• Matthew Prior, The Old Gentry.
• Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation. Hal: 'tis no sin for a man
to labour in his vocation.
• William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I (c.
1597), Act I, scene 2, line 116.
• The labour we delight in physics pain.
• William Shakespeare, Macbeth (1605), Act II,
scene 3, line 55.
• I have had my labour for my travail.
• William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida (c.
1602), Act I, scene 1, line 72.
• Many faint with toil,
That few may know the cares and woe of sloth.
• Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab (1813),
Canto III.
• Labour of love.
• I Thessalonians. I. 3.
• With starving labor pampering idle waste;
To tear at pleasure the defected land.
• James Thomson, Liberty, Part IV, line 1,160.
• The labourer is worthy of his reward.
• I Timothy. V. 18; Luke. X. 7. (hire).
• Clamorous pauperism feasteth
While honest Labor, pining, hideth his sharp ribs.
• Martin Tupper, Of Discretion.
• Labor omnia vincit improbus.
• Stubborn labor conquers everything.
• Virgil, Georgics (c. 29 BC), I. 145.
• Too long, that some may rest,
Tired millions toil unblest.

30 CHAPTER 7. LABOR
• William Watson, New National Anthem.
• Labor in this country is independent and proud. It
has not to ask the patronage of capital, but capital
solicits the aid of labor.
• Daniel Webster, speech, April, 1824.
• Ah, little recks the laborer,
How near his work is holding him to God,
The loving Laborer through space and time.
• Walt Whitman, Song of the Exposition, I.
• Ah vitam perdidi operse nihil agendo.
• Ah, my life is lost in laboriously doing nothing.
• Josiah Woodward, Fair Warnings to a Care-
less World, p. 97. Ed. 1736, quoting Merick
Casaubon.
7.16 Dictionary of Legal Quotations
(1904)
Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 164-165.
• The power of arbitrarily dismissing those in one’s
employ, is a power exercised in a great degree over
a vast number of persons in this country, without
their having any redress at law. Put the case of a
day labourer or ordinary servant. You may refuse
to give him a character, and he has no redress. If
you give him a false character, he has the means of
redress, but that is of a very diﬀerent kind. And this
is the law of the land.
• Shadwell, V.-C, Ranger v. Great Western Rail.
Co. (1838), 2 Jur. (0. S.) 789.
• The possession of the servant is the possession of
the master.
• Hide, C.J., King v. Burgess (1663), Ray. (Sir
Thos.) Rep. 85.
• Apprentices and servants are characters perfectly
distinct: the one receives instruction, the other a
stipulated price for his labour.
• Lord Kenyon, C.J., The King v. Inhabitants of
St. Paul’s, Bedford (1797), 6 T. R. 454.
7.17 Dictionary of Burning Words
of Brilliant Writers (1895)
Quotes reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of
Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).
• No man is born into the world whose work is not
born with him. There is always work, and tools to
work withal, for those who will.
• Henry Ward Beecher, p. 368.
• Let parents who hate their oﬀspring rear them to
hate labor, and to inherit riches; and before long they
will be stung by every vice, racked by its poison, and
damned by its penalty.
• Henry Ward Beecher, p. 438.
• Blessed is the man who has found his work; let him
ask no other blessedness. Know thy work, and do it;
and work at it like Hercules. One monster there is
in the world, the idle man.
• Thomas Carlyle, p. 367.
• Labor is sweet, for Thou hast toiled,
And care is light, for Thou hast cared;
Let not our works with self be soiled,
Nor in unsimple ways ensnared.
Through life’s long day and death’s dark night,
O gentle Jesus! be our light.
• Frederick William Faber, p. 369.
• No man is base who does a true work; for true action
is the highest being. No man is miserable that does a
true work; for right action is the highest happiness.
No man is isolated that does a true work; for use-
ful action is the highest harmony — it is the highest
harmony with nature and with souls — it is living as-
sociation with men — and it is practical fellowship
with God.
• Henry Giles, p. 369.
• Man must work. That is certain as the sun. But he
may work grudgingly, or he may work gratefully;
he may work as a man, or he may work as a ma-
chine. He cannot always choose his work, but he can
do it in a generous temper, and with an up-looking
heart. There is no work so rude, that he may not ex-
alt it; there is no work so impassive, that he may not
breathe a soul into it; there is no work so dull, that
he may not enliven it.
• Henry Giles, p. 369.

• A man’s labors must pass like the sunrises and sun-
sets of the world. The next thing, not the last, must
be his care.
• George MacDonald, p. 369.
• Labor is not, as some have erroneously supposed,
a penal clause of the original curse. There was la-
bor, bright, healthful, unfatiguing, in unfallen Par-
adise. By sin, labor became drudgery — the earth
was restrained from her spontaneous fertility, and
the strong arm of the husbandman was required, not
to develop, but to “subdue” it. But labor in itself is
noble, and is necessary for the ripe unfolding of the
highest life.
• William Morley Punshon, p. 367.
• Labor is the true alchemist that beats out in patient
transmutation the baser metals into gold.
• William Morley Punshon, p. 367.
• God does not give excellence to men but as the re-
ward of labor.
• Sir Joshua Reynolds, p. 367.
• Nothing is denied to well-directed labor; nothing is
ever to be attained without it.
• Sir Joshua Reynolds, p. 367.
• The virtues, like the body,become strong more by
labor than by nourishment.
• Jean Paul, p. 368.
7.18 See also
7.19 External links

Chapter 8
Work
To work for a living certainly cannot be the meaning of life, since
it is indeed a contradiction that the continual production of the
conditions is supposed to be the answer to the question of the
meaning of that which is conditional upon their production. ~
Søren Kierkegaard
Work is sustained eﬀort to achieve a goal or result.
Arranged alphabetically by author or source:
A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P ·
Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z
Additional headings:
Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations ·
Respectfully Quoted
See also · External links
A man who works at another’s will, not for his own passion or
his own need, but for money or honor, is always a fool. ~ Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe
8.1 A
• Work that is pure toil, done solely for the sake
of the money it earns, is also sheer drudgery be-
cause it is stultifying rather than self improving.
• Mortimer Adler, A Vision of the Future :
Twelve Ideas for a Better Life and a Better So-
ciety (1984).
• I don't want to achieve immortality through my
work... I want to achieve immortality through not
dying.
• Woody Allen, as quoted in Silent Strength
(1990) by Lloyd John Ogilvie, p. 111.
• The land of easy mathematics where he who works
adds up and he who retires subtracts.
• Núria Añó, in the short story 2066. Beginning
the age of correction.
• I do not demand equal pay for any women save those
who do equal work in value. Scorn to be coddled by
your employers; make them understand that you are
in their service as workers, not as women.
32

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