Henry David Thoreau

We must have infinite faith in each other. If we have not, we must never let it leak out that we have not.

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

We shall see but a little way if we require to understand what we see.

Are you threatening me? If you so much as touch me I’ll have you arrested!

My focus now is to be the best justice I can be.

Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences, for there is no worse torture than that of laws.

The law will never make men free, it is men that have to make the law free.

If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.

A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.

The highest law gives a thing to him who can use it.

Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man should always have them to converse with.

It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.

An incompetent attorney can delay a trial for months or years. A competent attorney can delay one even longer.

Men are not governed by justice, but by law or persuasion. When they refuse to be governed by law or persuasion, they have to be governed by force or fraud, or both.

You get a lawyer whether you’re in a military tribunal or whether you’re in a federal court, number one. The attorney general decided that the court with the biggest – with the greatest venue, with the best jurisdiction was the New York court. That was the right decision to make.

To live outside the law, you must be honest.

When you go into court you are putting your fate into the hands of twelve people who weren’t smart enough to get out of jury duty.

Justice? – You get justice in the next world. In this one you have the law.