“There are few die well that die in a battle.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry V 4.1
“If the enemy is an ass, and a fool, and a prating coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we should also, look you, be an ass, and a fool, and a prating coxcomb?” – William Shakespeare, King Henry V 4.1
“’Tis good for men to love their present pains upon example; so the spirit is eas’d.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry V 4.1
“There is some soul of good in things evil, would men observingly distil it out.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry V 4.1
“That’s a valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry V 3.6
“The particular phraseology of the constitution of the United States confirms and strengthens the principle, supposed to be essential to all written constitutions, that a law repugnant to the constitution is void.” – Chief Justice Marshall, United States Supreme Court, Marbury v. Madison (1803)
“It cannot be presumed that any clause in the constitution is intended to be without effect; and, therefore, such a construction is inadmissible, unless the words require it.” – Chief Justice Marshall, United States Supreme Court, Marbury v. Madison (1803)
“When the legislature proceeds to impose on that officer [i.e., the President] other duties; when he is directed peremptorily to perform certain acts; when the rights of individuals are dependent on the performance of those acts; he is so far the officer of the law; is amenable to the laws for his conduct; and cannot at his discretion sport away the vested rights of others.” – Chief Justice Marshall, United States Supreme Court, Marbury v. Madison (1803)
“The very essence of civil liberty certainly consists in the right of every individual to claim the protection of the laws, whenever he receives an injury. One of the first duties of government is to afford that protection. [The] government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men. It will certainly cease to deserve this high appellation, if the laws furnish no remedy for the violation of a vested legal right.” – Chief Justice Marshall, United States Supreme Court, Marbury v. Madison (1803)
“The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done. The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic. It does not even protect a man from an injunction against uttering words that may have all the effect of force. The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent. It is a question of proximity and degree. When a nation is at war, many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as men fight, and that no Court could regard them as protected by any constitutional right.” – Justice Holmes, United States Supreme Court, Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919)(internal citations omitted)
“When lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom the gentler gamester is the soonest winner.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry V 3.5
“The Danes made themselves too acceptable to English women by their elegant manners and their care of their person. They combed their hair every day, bathed every Saturday, and even changed their garments often. They set off their persons by many such frivolous devices. In this manner, they laid siege to the virtue of the married women, and persuaded the daughters, even of the nobles to be their concubines.” – John of Wallingford, Chronicle
“In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility: but when the blast of war blows in our ears, then imitate the action of the tiger; stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood. Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage; then lend the eye a terrible aspèct; let it pry through the portage of the head like the brass cannon; let the brow o’erwhelm as fearfully as doth a galled rock o’erhang and jutty his confounded base, swill’d with the wild and wasteful ocean. Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide; hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit to his full height!” – William Shakespeare, King Henry V 3.1
“With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches, which in their eye is never so complete as when they appear to possess those decisive marks of opulence which nobody can possess but themselves. In their eyes the merit of an object which is in any degree either useful or beautiful, is greatly enhance by its scarcity, or by the great labour which it requires to collect any considerable quantity of it, a labour which nobody can afford to pay but themselves. Such objects they are willing to purchase at a higher price than things much more beautiful and useful, but more common.”– Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“Human food seems to be the only produce of land which always and necessarily affords some rent to the landlord.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“A good rice field is a bog at all seasons, and at one season a bog covered with water.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“The vine is more affected by the difference of soils than any other fruit tree. From some it derives a flavour which no culture or management can equal, it is supposed, upon any other. This flavour, real or imaginary, is sometimes peculiar to the produce of a few vineyards; sometimes it extends through the greater part of a small district, and sometimes through a considerable part of a large province.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“Good roads, canals, and navigable rivers, by diminishing the expence of carriage, put the remote parts of the county more nearly upon a level with those in the neighbourhood of the town. They are upon that account the greatest of all improvements.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“As men, like all other animals, naturally multiply in proportion to their means of subsistence, food is always, more or less, in demand.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“To remove a man who has committed no misdemeanor from the parish where he chuses to reside, is an evident violation of natural liberty and justice.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“Before the invention of the art of printing, a scholar and a beggar seem to have been terms very nearly synonymous.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“The property which every man has in his own labour, as it is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolable. The patrimony of a poor man lies in the strength and dexterity of his hands; and to hinder him from employing this strength and dexterity in what manner he thinks proper without injury to his neighbour, is a plain violation of this most sacred property. It is a manifest encroachment upon the just liberty both of the workman, and of those who might be disposed to employ him. As it hinders the one from working at what he thinks proper, so it hinders the others from employing who they think proper. To judge whether he is fit to be employed, may surely be trusted to the discretion of the employers whose interest it so much concerns. The affected anxiety of the law-giver lest they should employ an improper person, is evidently as impertinent as it is oppressive.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“In opulent countries the market is generally so extensive, that any one trade is sufficient to employ the whole labour and stock of those who occupy it. Instances of people’s living by one employment, and at the same time deriving some little advantage from another, occur chiefly in poor countries.” – Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. One
“In cases of defence ’tis best to weigh the enemy more mighty than he seems: so the proportions of defence are fill’d.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry V 2.4
“Trust none; for oaths are straws, men’s faiths are wafer-cakes, and holdfast is the only dog.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry V 2.3
“If little faults, proceeding on distemper, shall not be wink’d at, how shall we stretch our eye when capital crimes, chew’d, swallow’d, and digested, appear before us?” – William Shakespeare, King Henry V 2.2
“Though patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod.” – William Shakespeare, King Henry V 2.1
“The famous have an exclusive legal right during life to control and profit from the commercial use of their name and personality.” – Circuit Judge Merritt, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, Memphis Development Foundation v. Factors Etc., Inc., 616 F.2d 956 (1980)
“The gist of this claim is that Carson is embarrassed by and considers it odious to be associated with the appellee’s product. Clearly, the association does not appeal to Carson’s sense of humor.” – Senior Circuit Judge Bailey Brown, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, Carson v. Here’s Johnny Portable Toilets, Inc., 698 F.2d 831 (1983).