Legality Quotes

• We respect law, when the law respects our needs. Whenever legality clashes with morality, legality should be opposed and morality should be upheld.

  Goparaju Ramachandra Rao

  Law, Needs, Morality

  "I Learn". Book by Goparaju Ramachandra Rao, 1976.

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• Legality can't create love if it isn't there, or preserve it if it's dying, but it can destroy love by making it compulsory.

  Madalyn Murray O'Hair

  Dying, Preserves, Compulsory

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• Legality and oppression are not unknown to run hand in hand.

  Tim Hawkins

  Running, Hands, Law

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• The harshest tyranny is that which acts under the protection of legality and the banner of justice.

  Baron de Montesquieu

  Justice, Protection, Tyranny

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• Morality and legality have nothing to do with one another.

  Ashly Lorenzana

  Morality

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• It is reasonable to insist that when the government deprives a person of his or her liberty? and in this case for an indefinite period of time? that the individual have a meaningful opportunity to challenge the legality of their detention and challenge whether they are being wrongfully detained.

  Jeff Bingaman

  Meaningful, Opportunity, Government

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• Ultimately, if people lose their willingness to recognize that there are times in our history when legality becomes distinct from morality, we aren't just ceding control of our rights to the government, but our futures.

  Edward Snowden

  Rights, Government, People

  "We are Edward Snowden, Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald from the Oscar-winning documentary CITIZENFOUR. AUAA". Reddit AMA, www.reddit.com.

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• It is true that legality is not morality, and sticking to the law is necessary for good citizenship, but it is not sufficient.

  Julian Baggini

  Law, Morality, Citizenship

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• Where a government has come into power through some form of popular vote, fraudulent or not, and maintains at least an appearance of constitutional legality, the guerrilla outbreak cannot be promoted, since the possibilities of peaceful struggle have not yet been exhausted.

  Che Guevara

  Struggle, Popular Vote, Government

  Ernesto Guevara, Brian Loveman, Thomas M. Davies (1985). “Guerrilla Warfare”, p.51, Rowman & Littlefield

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• Honor is the mysticism of legality

  Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

  Honor, Mysticism

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• Government income redistribution programs produce the same result as theft. In fact, that's what a thief does; he redistributes income. The difference between government and thievery is mostly a matter of legality.

  Walter E. Williams

  Differences, Government, Matter

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• The fate of every democracy, of every government based on the sovereignty of the people, depends on the choices it makes between these opposite principles, absolute power on the one hand, and on the other the restraints of legality and the authority of tradition.

  Lord Acton

  Fate, Government, Hands

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• The fantastic is always a break in the acknowledged order, an irruption of the inadmissible within the changeless everyday legality

  Roger Caillois

  Order, Everyday, Fantastic

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• Conquer evil people by gentle kindness, and make zealous people wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion.

  Isaac of Nineveh

  Kindness, Compassion, Evil People

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• You can't simply redefine Jerusalem. The Palestinian claim is based on legality, on the international recognition that the situation created by the war in '67 is not valid.

  Hanan Ashrawi

  War, Jerusalem, Recognition

  "Rabin legacy casts long shadow over Barak, peace process" by Jerrold Kessel, www.cnn.com. November 3, 1999.

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• I don't feel that people should glom onto other people. I feel that relationships should be nice and easy and convenient and happy and not strictured with legality or jealousy.

  Madalyn Murray O'Hair

  Nice, People, Easy

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• From a personal perspective, because I'm on a watchlist and went through years of trying to find out why, of having the government refuse to confirm or deny the very existence of such a list, it's so meaningful to have its existence brought into the open so that the public knows there is a watchlist, and so that the courts can now address the legality of it. I mean, the person who revealed this has done a huge public service and I'm personally thankful.

  Laura Poitras

  Meaningful, Government, Years

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• In our constitutional system, the extent of political controversies, including the protests, surrounding a given issue is utterly unrelated to the analysis of legality and should have no effect on any court.

  David B. Rivkin

  Issues, Should Have, Political

  "Is President Trump’s executive order constitutional?". www.washingtonpost.com. February 6, 2017.

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• If anybody wants to engage in any kind of sexual activity with any consenting partner, that is their business. Anybody can do anything they damn well please, as long as the relationship isn't exploitive. And I don't feel that legality should have anything to do with it. There are certain bodily functions of mine which I will not allow to be supervised.

  Madalyn Murray O'Hair

  Should Have, Long, Want

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• My group, the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, was one of the principle organizers. So, there was this campaign to support the United Nations General Assembly in asking the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion on the legality of threat or use of nuclear weapons.

  John Burroughs

  Justice, Support, Principles

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• Christian morality (so called) has all the characters of a reaction.... In its horror of sensuality, it made an idol of asceticism, which has been gradually compromised away into one of legality. It holds out the hope of heaven and the threat of hell, as the appointed and appropriate motives to a virtuous life - in this falling far below the best of the ancients, and doing what lies in it to give to human morality an essentially selfish character.... It is essentially a doctrine of passive obedience; it inculcates submission to all authorities found established.

  John Stuart Mill

  Christian, Lying, Selfish

  John Stuart Mill (1950). “Utilitarianism, liberty, and representative government”

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• The terrorist and the policeman both come from the same basket. Revolution, legality--counter-moves in the same game; forms of idleness at bottom identical.

  Joseph Conrad

  Moving, Games, Police

  The Secret Agent ch. 4 (1907)

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• I am looking to have a place under the sun for our new generations to live in peace far away from repression, from terrorism, to live as human beings freely in this free world. That is what I am looking for. I am not asking for the moon. I am asking for the United Nations legality to be implemented.

  Yasser Arafat

  Moon, Being Free, Generations

  Source: www.nybooks.com

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• Under the president's spying program, there are no checks and balances. There is no outside review of the legality of this brazen infringement on the civil rights and liberties of the American people. Undeterred by the public outcry, the president [George Bush] vows to continue spying on American citizens.

  Samuel Alito

  Rights, People, Balance

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• A critical component of White House Scandal Defense 101 is rallying the partisan base. This keeps approval ratings in territory where the wheels don't start falling off. The way to achieve this goal is you go negative and you don't let up. If you're always attacking your accusers, the debate becomes one of Democrat vs. Republican, rather than right vs. wrong. Anyone who questions the legality of the decision to wiretap thousands of Americans unlawfully is attacked, as either an enabler of terrorists or a bitter partisan trying to distract a president at war.

  Bob Barr

  War, Fall, Approval Rating

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