Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.

About Aristotle

Portrait of Aristotle

Aristotle (Ancient Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης, romanized: Aristotélēs; 384–322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings span the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, and the arts. As the founder of the Peripatetic school of philosophy in the Lyceum in Athens, he began the wider Aristotelian tradition that...

More quotations from Aristotle

It is in justice that the ordering of society is centered.

Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit.

The gods too are fond of a joke.

Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.

Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.

More quotations tagged with “laws”

Law is order in liberty, and without order liberty is social chaos. The highest test of a people's fitness for free institutions is their willingness to obey law. In monarchies and empires physical force restrains the multitude and maintains government. In a democracy all depends on the intelligence and conscience of the people.

—John Ireland (bishop)

intelligence force conscience liberty laws

Where you find the laws most numerous, there you will find also the greatest injustice.

Good laws have their origins in bad morals.

—Ambrosius Macrobius

Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.

—Albert Einstein

Let me not be understood as saying that there are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise for the redress of which no legal provisions have been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do mean to say that although bad laws, if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still, while they continue in force, for the sake of example they should be religiously observed.

—Abraham Lincoln