John Milton Quotes

Coercion is the basis of every law in the universe,--human or divine. A law is not law without coercion behind it.

I was the law and order.

The state is force incarnate, its essence is command and compulsion.

In matters of government, justice means force as well as virtue.

Coercion is the basis of every law in the universe.

Force cannot change right.

Law … is but words and paper without the hands and swords of men

The strongest is never strong enough to always be the master unless he transforms strength into right…

A man with a club is a law-maker.

If a man stopped me in the street and demanded of me my watch, I should refuse to give it to him. If he threatened to take it by force, I feel I should, though not a fighting man, do my best to protect it. If, on the other hand, he should assert his intention of trying to obtain it by means of an action in any court of law, I should take it out of my pocket and hand it to him, and think I had got off cheaply.

It is one thing to persuade, another to command; one thing to press with arguments, another with penalties.

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.

A portion of the multitude must ever be coerced.

He makes a great mistake... who supposes that authority is firmer or better established when it is founded by force than that which is welded by affection.

No law or ordinance is mightier than understanding.

Law is king of all.

The most powerful men were those who most effectively used the power of adult competence to enforce childish agreements.

Law is any application for the official use of coercion that succeeds.

Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.

Might was the measure of right.

Law is nothing other than a certain ordinance of reason for the common good, promulgated by the person who has the care of the community.

Law, without force, is impotent.

Power acquired by violence is only a usurpation, and lasts only as long as the force of him who commands prevails over that of those who obey.

It is not wisdom but Authority that makes a law.

We Mexicans believe in the force of the law, not in the law of force