Law

"Because James II had attempted to destroy the institutions of the country, it long remained impossible for anyone else to attempt their reform."

"The best reformers the world has ever seen are those who commence on themselves."

"Never came reformation in a flood."

"And like bright metal on a sullen ground, My reformation, glittering o'er my fault, Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes Than that which hath no foil to set it off."

"My desolation does begin to make A better life."

"The voice of great events is proclaiming to us, Reform, that you may preserve."

"Kar vasselage par sens nen est folie, Mielz valt mesure que ne fait estultie."

"The revolution has failed. Fascism has temporarily succeeded under the guise of reform. The only way we can destroy it is to refuse to compromise with the enemy state and its ruling class."

"Government and the infrastructure of the enemy capitalist state must be destroyed to get at the heart of the problem: property relations. Otherwise there is no revolution. Reshuffle the governmental personnel and forms, without changing property relations and economic institutions, and you have produced simply another reform stage in the old bourgeois revolution"

"Contemporary man has begun to lose his naiveté as ... the deep causes of the situation in which he finds himself are becoming clearer. He realizes that to attack these deep causes is the indispensable prerequisite for radical change. And so he has gradually abandoned a simple reformist attitude regarding the existing social order, for, by its very shallowness this reformism perpetuates the existing system."

"A rayformer thinks he was ilicted because he was a rayformer, whin th' thruth iv th' matther is he was ilicted because no wan knew him."

"But he was an altered man, and he could not bear the thought of returning to a place where his repentance would be scoffed at, and his reformation disbelieved."

"What sort of reformers and workers are you, that work only on the rotten material? That never think of meddling with the material while it continues sound; that stress it and strain it with new rates and assessments, till once it has given way and declared itself rotten; whereupon you snatch greedily at it, and say, Now let us try to do some good upon it! You mistake in every way, my friends: the fact is, you fancy yourselves men of virtue, benevolence, what not; and you are not even men of sincerity and honest sense. I grieve to say it; but it is true. Good from you, and your operations, is not to be expected."

"The oyster-women lock'd their fish up, And trudged away to cry, No Bishop."

"REFORM, v. A thing that mostly satisfies reformers opposed to reformation."

"Life cannot move forward just by being drenched in emotions."

"I am one, my liege, Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world Have so incens'd that I am reckless what I do to spite the world."

"Αὐτῶν γὰρ σφετέρῃσιν ἀτασθαλίῃσιν ὄλοντο."

"Ay, to those lofty beings, be they who they will, who look down from their starry thrones on the strange figures flitting to and fro over this earth of ours, the wild recklessness of us mortals with each other may well lose its painful interest."

"You better check yo self before you wreck yo self."

"If a king is energetic, his subjects will be equally energetic. If he is reckless, they will not only be reckless likewise, but also eat into his works. Besides, a reckless king will easily fall into the hands of his enemies. Hence the king shall ever be wakeful."

"Who falls from all he knows of bliss, Cares little into what abyss."

"I tell thee, be not rash; a golden bridge Is for a flying enemy."

"It maybe said of them [the Hollanders], as of the Spaniards, that the sun never sets upon their Dominions."

"There is no presumption in this country that every person knows the law: it would be contrary to common sense and reason if it were so."

"If a man go into the London Docks sober without means of getting drunk, and comes out of one of the cellars very drunk wherein are a million gallons of wine, I think that would be reasonable evidence that he had stolen some of the wine in that cellar, though you could not prove that any wine was stolen, or any wine was missed."

"Prima facie, every estate, whether given by will or otherwise, is supposed to be beneficial to the party to whom it is so given."

"A presumption of any fact is, properly, an inferring of that fact from other facts that are known; it is an act of reasoning; and much of human knowledge on all subjects is derived from this source."

"It follows almost necessarily, from the imperfection and irregularity of human nature, that a uniform course is not preserved during a long period: a little advance is made at one time, a retreat at another; something is added, or taken away, from indiscretion, or ignorance, or through other causes: and, when by the lapse of years the evidence is lost which would explain these irregularities, they are easily made the foundation of cavils against the legality of the whole practice. So also with regard to title: if that which has existed from time immemorial be scrutinised with the same severity which may properly be employed in canvassing a modern grant, without making allowance for the changes and accidents of time, no ancient title will be found free from objection : that, indeed, will become a source of weakness, which ought to give security and strength. It has therefore always been the well-established principle of our law to presume everything in favour of long possession."

"I readily admit that the law which requires presumption or custom to be carried back for a period of nearly 700 years, is a bad and mischievous law, and one which is discreditable to us as a civilised and enlightened people, but such is the law; and while it so continues, I consider myself, in administering it, as bound to administer it as I find it; nor do I feel myself warranted in undermining or frittering it away by subtle fictions or artificial presumptions inconsistent with truth and fact."

"No one can doubt that presumptions may be made in criminal as well as in civil cases. It is constantly the practice to act upon them, and I apprehend that more than one half of the persons convicted of crimes are convicted on presumptive evidence."

"It is certainly true, and I most ardently hope that it will ever continue to be the case, that by the law of England, as it was urged and admitted in the case of the Seven Bishops,1 no man is to be convicted of any crime upon mere naked presumption."

"When one or more things are proved, from which our experience enables us to ascertain that another, not proved, must have happened, we presume that it did happen, as well in criminal as in civil cases."

"It is a familiar principle that all things are presumed to have been rightly done unless there is reasonable ground shown for doubting it."

"It is a strong presumption that that which never has been done cannot by law be done at all."

"Presumption means nothing more than, as stated by Lord Mansfield, the weighing of probabilities, and deciding, by the powers of common sense, on which side the truth is."

"When truth and reason cannot be heard, then must presumption rule."

"How dare the plants look up to heaven, from whence They have their nourishment?"

"He will steal himself into a man's favour and for a week escape a great deal of discoveries; but when you find him out, you have him ever after."

"It is not so with Him that all things knows As 'tis with us that square our guess by shows: But most it is presumption in us when The help of heaven we count the act of men."

"Presumption should never make us neglect that which appears easy to us, nor despair make us lose courage at the sight of difficulties."

"If we pretend to respect the artist at all we must allow him his freedom of choice, in the face, in particular cases, of innumerable presumptions that the choice will not fructify."

"Principle II : The presumptions of the law are creative presumptions : they are aimed at conditions to be brought about, and only for that reason ignore conditions which exist."

"Principle I : Legal rights are presumptive rights."

"Presume to lay their hand upon the ark Of her magnificent and awful cause."

"Our sun is one of 100 billion stars in our galaxy. Our galaxy is one of billions of galaxies populating the universe. It would be the height of presumption to think that we are the only living things in that enormous immensity."

"Presumption has many forms; and it is worth considering, whether a great and good Being would most disapprove the presumption which expected too much from His goodness, or the presumption which dared positively to disbelieve His promise."

"I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they did not wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way against holders of power, increasing as the power increases."

"Lord of himselfe, though not of lands, And having nothing, yet hath all."

"People may have too much of a good thing: Full as an egg of wisdom thus I sing."