Wendell Phillips Quotes

No law however formal can withstand the effect of changes in opinion.

For those who have only to obey, law is what the sovereign commands. For the sovereign, in the throes of deciding what he ought to command, this view of law is singularly empty of light and leading. In the dispersed sovereignty of modern states, and especially in times of rapid social change, law must look to the future as well as to history and precedent, and to what is possible and right as well as to what is actual.

Public opinion, because of the tremendous urge to conformity in gregarious animals, is less tolerant than any system of law.

Customs may not be as wise as laws, but they are always more popular.

With the greatest respect, we do not make the criminal law on the basis of opinion polls. A majority of 9:1 could be in favour of a ban in my constituency, but I would not regard that as conclusive, and I hope that we never would. If we start having opinion polls about all the unpleasant and distasteful habits and customs of some members of society, and suggesting that their findings should be made part of the criminal law, foxhunting would come way down the list, and quite a lot of strange enactments would have to go through the House.

Culture is a product of law. And laws create norms for society. This is why anyone who wants to change the culture of a country must try to change the norms of the country.

The will of the people shall be the law of the land

Taboos are falling across our culture like dominoes. What was unspeakable yesterday dominates talk shows today.

Law is the ultimate science.

Newspapers have become more important to the average man than the scriptures.

We are the generation that came of age in an ageless society.

Times change. The vices of your age are stylish today.

In France, for instance, I'm told that marriage is now frequently contracted in seven-year terms where either party may move on when their term is up. How shallow and how different from the Europe of the past.

Any law that takes hold of a mans daily life cannot prevail in a community, unless the vast majority of the community are actively in favor of it. The laws that are the most operative are the laws which protect life.

To make laws is a human instinct that arises as soon as food and shelter have been ensured, among all peoples, everywhere.

But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations ... This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution.

You can't change laws without first changing human nature.' -Nurse Greta You can't change human nature without first changing the law.' -Nurse Yvonne

the law, like art, is always vainly racing to catch up with experience.

So many laws argues so many sins.

The law is the witness and external deposit of our moral life. Its history is the history of the moral development of the race.

How dismal it is to see present day Americans yearning for the very orthodoxy that their country was founded to escape.

Naturally, grown-up citizens are concerned about the beatniks and delinquents. ... The question is why the grownups do not, more soberly, draw the same conclusions as the youth. Or, since no doubt many people are quite clear about the connection that the structure of society that has becoming increasingly dominant in our country is disastrous to the growth of excellence and manliness, why don't more people speak up and say so?

Legislation may at times be disobeyed, but never law, for the breaking brings swift punishment of its own.

There is a mandate to impose a voluntary return to traditional values.

People who want to wage cultural wars ought to keep in mind that cultural views often don't move at all for a very long time, but when they move they can move very fast.