Henry David Thoreau

It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive.

Many of the phenomena of Winter are suggestive of an inexpressible tenderness and fragile delicacy. We are accustomed to hear this king described as a rude and boisterous tyrant; but with the gentleness of a lover he adorns the tresses of Summer.

We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.

The lawyer’s truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.

I heartily accept the motto,That government is best which governs least; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which I also believe,That government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.

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.

To live outside the law, you must be honest.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

In law, nothing is certain but the expense.

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

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

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

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.

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

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