The Rule of Law

This is why we do not permit a man to rule, but the law, because a man rules in his own interest, and becomes a tyrant; but the function of a ruler is to be the guardian of justice, and if of justice,

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and one whether it is expedient or inexpedient for one man to be sovereign over everything. Now the study of a militarycommand of the kind mentioned has more the aspect of a legal than of a constituti

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Yet certainly physicians themselves call in other physicians to treat them when they are ill, and gymnastic trainers put themselves under other trainers when they are doing exercises, believing that t

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Although I should grant to you that it would be a scandalous thing, (and the fact I will examine into presently,) still you must inevitably grant to me that it is a much more scandalous thing that the

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I shall say nothing novel or extravagant or peculiar, but only what you all know to be true as well as I do. For if any of you cares to inquire what is the motive-power that calls together the Council

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That you are empowered to pass sentence of imprisonment I prove by this argument; and I take it that everybody will agree that to invalidate judicial decisions is monstrous, impious, and subversive of

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If men are to be happy, the voice of law, and not a ruler’s threats, must reign supreme; if they are free, no groundless charge, but only proof of guilt, must cause them apprehension; nor must the saf

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I will give you powerful proofs of this not mere words, but what you honor more,—actions. And listen to what happened to me, that you may be convinced that I would never yield to any one, if that was

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Who, then, shall rule the ruler? The Law, the king of all, Both mortals and immortals, as Pindar says - not law written outside him in books or on wooden tablets or the like, but reason endowed with l

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Obedience to the magistrates and the laws is to my mind the one safeguard of society; and anyone who sets them at nought is destroying at one blow the surest guarantee of security which the state poss

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We raised Caesar to his high place, serving him in war in conjunction with you and holding commands under him. We continued his friends so long that no one could imagine that we conspired against him

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Now paternal authority has not the power to compel obedience, nor indeed, speaking generally, has the authority of any individual unless he be a king or the like; but law on the other hand is a rule,

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But the difficulty first mentioned proves nothing else so clearly as that it is proper for the laws when rightly laid down to be sovereign, while the ruler or rulers in office should have supreme powe

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Our discussion has now reached the case of the king who acts in all matters according to his own will, and we must examine this type of royalty. For the so-called constitutional monarchy, as we said,

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And another kind of democracy is for all the citizens that are not open to challenge to have a share in office, but for the law to rule; and another kind of democracy is for all to share in the office

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