Ignorance of the law excuses no man: Not that all men know the law, but because 'tis an excuse every man will plead, and no man can tell how to refute him.

About John Selden

Portrait of John Selden

John Selden (16 December 1584 – 30 November 1654) was an English jurist, a scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution and scholar of Jewish law. He was known as a polymath; John Milton hailed Selden in 1644 as "the chief of learned men reputed in this land".

More quotations tagged with “laws”

The law is not so much carved in stone as it is written in water, flowing in and out with the tide.

—Jeff Melvoin

It was the boast of Augustus that he found Rome of brick and left it of marble. But how much nobler will be the sovereign's boast when he shall have it to say that he found law… a sealed book and left it a living letter; found it the patrimony of the rich and left it the inheritance of the poor; found it the two-edged sword of craft and oppression and left it the staff of honesty and the shield of innocence.

—Henry Brougham

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.

—H. L. Mencken

A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.

—H. L. Mencken

The problem with any unwritten law is that you don't know where to go to erase it.

—Glaser and Way

History

11 Jul 2015 Added