Samuel Johnson

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.

The trade of advertising is now so near perfection that it is not easy to propose any improvement. But as every art ought to be exercised in due subordination to the public good, I cannot but propose it as a moral question to these masters of the public ear, whether they do not sometimes play too wantonly with our passions.

Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

Shame arises from the fear of men, conscience from the fear of God.

There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

In law, nothing is certain but the expense.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

To live outside the law, you must be honest.

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