Law and Lawyers Quotes

No public business of any kind could possibly be done at any time without the acquiescence of the Circumlocution Office. Its finger was in the largest public pie, and in the smallest public tart. ~ Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something entirely different." ~ The Boscombe Valley Mystery by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "The pressure of public opinion can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among the neighbors, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser." ~ The Adventure of the Copper Beeches by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Thwackum was for doing justice, and leaving mercy to heaven. ~ Tom Jones by Henry Fielding As for the law--it catered for a human nature of which it took a naturally low view. ~ The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy "It is not Justice the servant of men, but accident, hazard, Fortune--the ally of patient Time--that holds an even and scrupulous balance." ~ Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad The law of England is much more severe upon offences against property than against the person, as becomes a people whose ruling passion is money. ~ Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard "Always remember, Mr. Robarts, that when you go into an attorney's office door, you will have to pay for it, first or last." ~ The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope "The law will argue any thing, with any body who will pay the law for the use of its brains and its time." ~ Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins These sequestered nooks are the public offices of the legal profession, where writs are issued, judgments signed, declarations filed, and numerous other ingenious machines put in motion for the torture and torment of His Majesty's liege subjects, and the comfort and emolument of the practitioners of the law. ~ The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens