"It is dangerous to tell the people..." - Quote by Blaise Pascal
It is dangerous to tell the people that the laws are unjust; for they obey them only because they think them just. Therefore it isnecessary to tell them at the same time that they must obey them because they are laws, just as they must obey superiors, not because they are just, but because they are superiors. In this way all sedition is prevented.
More by Blaise Pascal
“To go beyond the bounds of moderation is to outrage humanity. The greatness of the human soul is shown by knowing how to keep within proper bounds. There are two equally dangerous extremes- to shut reason out, and not to let nothing in.”
“Seeing too much to deny and too little to be sure, I am in a state to be pitied.”
“An advocate who has been well paid in advance will find the cause he is pleading all the more just.”
More on Law
“Obedience of the law is demanded; not asked as a favor.”
“We think the Dred Scott decision is erroneous. We know the court that made it has often overruled its own decisions, and we shall do what we can to have it overrule this.”
“A constitution defines and limits the powers of the government it creates. It therefore follows, as a natural and also a logical result, that the governmental exercise of any power not authorized by the constitution is an assumed power, and therefore illegal.”
More on Justice
“Equality before the law is probably forever unattainable. It is a noble ideal, but it can never be realized, for what men value in this world is not rights but privileges.”
“The negative principle that no law is free law, is not much known except among lawyers.”
“If any should be slaves, it should be first those who desire it for themselves, and secondly, those who desire it for others”