Henry David Thoreau

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.

What is once well done is done forever.

The government of the world I live in was not framed, like that of Britain, in after-dinner conversations over the wine.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

A friend is one who incessantly pays us the compliment of expecting from us all the virtues, and who can appreciate them in us. The friend asks no return but that his friend will religiously accept and wear and not disgrace his apotheosis of him. They cherish each other’s hopes. They are kind to each other’s dreams.

I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make use and get advantage of her as I can, as is usual in such cases.

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

In law, nothing is certain but the expense.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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