Mich, the letter you’ve got from Bendini, Lambert & Locke was the only one sent out: we want you. The Firm 1993 starring Tom Cruise & Jeanne Tripplehorn & Gene Hackman & Ed Harris & Holly Hunter & Hal Holbrook & David Strathairn et al, director Sydney Pollack
He’s our Number One draft pick so to speak. ibid. senior lawyer to all
Everything depends on billing. How many hours even thinking about a client. ibid. Mentor to young ’un
We do all the installations for the Firm. ibid. installation man to her
Avery, who’s in Chicago? ibid. him to Avery
Your life as you know it is over. Your law firm is the sole legal representative of the Moraldo Crime Family in Chicago, known as the Mafia, the Mob. ibid. Washington dude to him
I couldn’t stand you’re not knowing. ibid. him to her
I get paid to be suspicious when I’ve got nothing to be suspicious about. ibid. security guy to lawyers
I knew he was a closet idealist. ibid. Avery to her
I swear to God, Joey, every fucking lawyer on the face of the Earth ought to be killed. ibid. Mafia dude
I discovered the law again. ibid. him to agent
Make laws and see that they’re obeyed. If we have to have Martial Law to do it. Scarface 1932 aka The Shame of the Nation starring Paul Muni & George Raft & Ann Dvorak & Karen Morley & Osgood Perkins & C Henry Gordon & Vince Barnett & Boris Karloff & Purnell Pratt & Tully Marshall et al, director Howard Hughes, rozzer
What I wanted was always against the law. We’re No Angels 1954 starring Aldo Ray & Humphrey Bogart & Peter Ustinov & Joan Bennett & Basil Rathbone & Leo G Carroll & John Baer & Gloria Talbott & Lea Penman & John Smith et al, director Michael Curtiz
They’ve abolished all lawyers. Back to the Future II 1989 starring Michael J Fox & Christopher Lloyd & Lea Thompson & Thomas F Wilson & James Tolkan & Jeffrey Weissman & Elisabeth Shue & Billy Zane & Charles Fleischer et al, director Robert Zemeckis, Doc
There is more to life than the rule of law. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s5e8: Things Past, Odo
Without law, commander, there is no civilisation. The Bridge on the River Kwai 1957 starring Alec Guinness & William Holden & Jack Hawkins & Ann Sears & Sessue Hayakawa & James Donald & Geoffrey Horne & Heihachiro Okawa & Keiichiro Katsumoto et al, director David Lean, Guinness to Holden
You can rely on the law. It’s not like family or friends. The law never lets you down. The Tenth Man 1988 starring Anthony Hopkins & Kristin Scott Thomas & Derek Jacobi & Cyril Cusack & Brenda Bruce & Timothy Watson & Paul Rogers & Peter Jonfield & Geoffrey Bayldon & Michael Attwell et al, director Jack Gold, Hopkins
We don’t need the law here. Roland Freisler
The legal profession was booming in medieval Britain. Bettany Hughes, Seven Ages of Britain: The Sixth Age: 1350 A.D. – 1530 A.D., Channel 4 2003
For the first time in English law it was a crime just to say things. Simon Schama, A History of Britain: Burning Convictions, BBC 2000
No constable or other royal official shall take corn or other movable goods from any man without immediate payment, unless the seller voluntarily offers postponement of this. Magna Carta Clause 28
No sheriff, royal official, or other person shall take horses or carts for transport from any free man, without his consent. Clause 30
In future no official shall place a man on trial upon his own unsupported statement, producing credible witnesses to the truth of it. Clause 38
No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way harmed, nor will we go upon him nor will we send upon him, except by the legal judgement of his peers or by the law of the land. Clause 39
To none will we sell, to none deny or delay, right or justice. Clause 40
From the ranks of the gentry the magistrates and sheriffs are drawn. Dr Ian Mortimer, The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England II: The Rich, BBC 2013
If I would have given way to an arbitrary way, for to have all laws changed according to the power of the sword, I needed not to have come here; and therefore I tell you (and I pray God it be not laid to your charge) that I am the martyr of the people. Charles I
Our Nation is founded on the principle that observance of the law is the eternal safeguard of liberty and defiance of the law is the surest road to tyranny ... Americans are free, in short, to disagree with the law but not to disobey it. For in a government of laws and not of men, no man, however prominent or powerful, and no mob however unruly or boisterous, is entitled to defy a court of law. If this country should ever reach the point where any man or group of men by force or threat of force could long defy the commands of our court and our Constitution, then no law would stand free from doubt, no judge would be sure of his writ, and no citizen would be safe from his neighbors. John F Kennedy, September 1962
You need no political laws to liberate your power for prosperity and peace; you are the master of your fate by natural law, if you but discover that law. E C Riegel, The New Approach to Freedom, 1949
The accession of not one but three illegal drug users in a row to the US presidency constitutes an existential challenge to the prohibitionist regime. The fact that some of the most successful people of our time, be it in business, finances, politics, entertainment or the arts, are current or former substance users is a fundamental refutation of its premises and a stinging rebuttal of its rationale. A criminal law that is broken at least once by 50% of the adult population and that is broken on a regular basis by 20% of the same adult population is a broken law, a fatally flawed law. How can a democratic government justify a law that is consistently broken by a substantial minority of the population? What we are witnessing here is a massive case of civil disobedience not seen since alcohol prohibition in the 1930 in the US. On what basis can a democratic system justify the stigmatization and discrimination of a strong minority of as much as 20% of its population? Jeffrey Dhywood, World War D: The Case Against Prohibitionism
[sings] These are the laws of my administration: no-one’s allowed to smoke or tell a dirty joke. And whistling is forbidden. If chewing gum is chewed, the chewer is pursued ... This is the land of the free. The last man nearly ruined this place. He didn’t know what to do with it. If you think this country’s bad off now just wait till I get through with it. The country’s taxes must be fixed and I know what to do with it. If you think you’re paying too much now just wait till I get through with it. Duck Soup 1933 starring Groucho Marx & Harpo Marx & Chico Marx & Zeppo Marx & Margaret Dumont & Louis Calhern & Raquel Torres & Edgar Kennedy & Edmund Breese & Edwin Maxwell et al, director Leo McCarey, Rufus T Firefly
William Roper: So now you’d give the Devil benefit of law!
Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
William Roper: Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that!
Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down, and you’re just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake! Robert Bolt, A Man For All Seasons I:39
Ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it. Early-15th century proverb
Possession is nine points of the law. Early 17th century proverb
A man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client. Early 19th century proverb
One law for the rich and another for the poor. Early 19th century proverb
Cleistenes called his reforms ... equality before the law. Richard Miles, Ancient Worlds 3/6: The Greek Thing, BBC 2010
Law was one of the great building blocks of the Roman civilisation. Richard Miles, Ancient World s5/6: Republic of Virtue