The law is not an end in itself, nor does it provide ends. It is preeminently a means to serve what we think is right. William J. Brennan, opinion, Roth v. United States, 1957. I don't want to know what the law is, I want to know who the judge is. One with the law is a majority.
Free government has no greater menace than disrespect for authority and continual violation of law.
It is the duty of a citizen not only to observe the law but to let it be known that he is opposed to its violation. Calvin Coolidge, vice-presidential nomination acceptance speech, Republican National Convention, July 27, 1920. When the law contradicts what most people regard as moral and proper, they will break the law, whether the law is enacted in the name of a noble ideal, or in the naked interest of one group at the expense of another. Only fear of punishment, not a sense of justice and morality, will lead people to obey the law. When people start to break one set of laws, the lack of respect for the law inevitably spreads to all laws, even those that everyone regards as moral and proper laws against violence, theft, and vandalism .