Jonathan Swift Law Quotations

Laws are best explained, interpreted and applied by those whose interest and abilities lie in perverting, confounding and eluding them

Possession, they say, is eleven points of the law.

Conscience signifies that knowledge which a man hath of his own thoughts and actions; and because, if a man judgeth fairly of his actions by comparing them with the law of God, his mind will approve or condemn him; this knowledge or conscience may be both an accuser and a judge.

By the laws of God, of nature, of nations, and of your country you are and ought to be as free a people as your brethren in England.

Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.

A maxim in law has more weight in the world than an article of faith.

"Lawyers Are": Those whose interests and abilities lie in perverting, confounding and eluding the law.

Come, agree, the law's costly.

It is likewise to be observed that this society hath a peculiar chant and jargon of their own, that no other mortal can understand, and wherein all their laws are written, which they take special care to multiply.

Have you not observed that there is a lower kind of discretion and regularity, which seldom fails of raising men to the highest station in the court, the church, and the law?

I can discover no political evil in suffering bullies, sharpers, and rakes, to rid the world of each other by a method of their own; where the law hath not been able to find an expedient.