Robert Christy, comp. Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1887.
Law
A bad (or lean or meagre) compromise is better than a fat lawsuit.French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Danish.
A case well stated is half tried.W. W. Wilshire.
A common error makes law.Coke.
A corrupt society has many laws.Dr. Johnson.
A foolish judge passes a brief sentence.
A fox should not be on the jury at a goose’s trial.
A friend in court is as good as a penny in pocket.
A friend in court makes the process short.
A good cause and a good tongue, yet money must carry it.
A good king is better than an old law.Dutch.
A good word in court is better than a pound in the purse.Irish.
A lawsuit for a maravedi consumes a real’s worth of paper.Spanish.
A lawsuit is civil war.German.
A litigious man, a liar.
A long lawsuit is the lawyer’s vintage.German.
A pennyweight of love is worth a pound of law.
A person ought not to be judge in his own cause.
A pretty woman wins the lawsuit.German.
A prisoner is covered all over with the armor of the law.Erskine.
A promise against law or duty is void in its nature.
A rat may very ill plead the law.
A rich knave is a libel on the laws.
A silent man’s words are not brought into court.
Abundance o’ law braks nae law.
Accusing is proving where malice and force sit judges.
Agree, for the law is costly.
Agree with thine adversary quickly.New Testament.
All the matter’s not in my lord judge’s head.
An indifferent agreement is better than carrying a cause at law.
An ounce of favor goes further than a pound of justice.French.
An upright judge has more regard to justice than to men.
Arms and laws do not flourish together.Cæsar.
As the man is friended, so the law is ended.
As fast as laws are devised, their evasion is contrived.German.
Better no law than law not enforced.Danish.
Better ten guilty escape than one innocent man suffer.
By lawsuits no one has become rich.German.
Courts for cowards were erected.Burns.
Custom becomes law.Spanish.
Don’t hear one and judge two.Modern Greek.
Favor and gifts disturb justice.
First hang and draw, then hear the cause by Lindford’s law.
Fond of lawsuits, little wealth; fond of doctors, little health.
For the upright there are no laws.German.
Give me the making of the songs of the people; I care not who makes their laws.
God gives the will, necessity gives the law.Danish.
God help the sheep when the wolf is judge.Danish.
God keep me from judge and doctor.Turkish.
Good laws often proceed from bad manners.
Hard is a new law imposed on an old license.Italian.
He goes safely to trial whose father is a judge.Spanish.
He is the best judge who knows the least.
He that buys magistracy must sell justice.
He that goes to law does as the sheep that in a storm runs to a briar.Burton.
He that goes to law holds a wolf by the ears.Burton.
He that goes to law should have his brother for the judge.South American.
He that has the worst cause makes the most noise.
He that is mediator between two litigants loses his money.Turkish.
He that passeth a judgment as he runs overtaketh repentance.
He that would thrive by law, must see his enemy’s counsel as well as his own.
He wastes his tears who weeps before the judge.Italian.
He who goes to law for a sheep loses his cow.German.
He who is fond of maintaining an action will soon be without the means of maintaining himself.Punch.
He who makes a law should keep it.Spanish.
He will embark in litigation even if a donkey has bitten his dog.Latin.
He will go to law for the wagging of a straw.
Hell and chancery are always open.
Human laws reach not thoughts.
If the judge be your accuser, may God be your help.Turkish.
If you would be a good judge hear what every one says.Portuguese.
I’ll make him water his horse at Highgate; i.e., I’ll sue him.
In a thousand pounds of law there is not an ounce of love.
In giving judgment haste is criminal.Publius Syrus.
It becomes not a law-maker to be a law-breaker.Bias.
It is better to be tried than suspected.English State Trials.
Judges should have two ears, both alike.German.
Justice, but not in my own house.Spanish.
Justice oft leans to the side where the purse hangs.Danish.
Law cannot persuade where it cannot punish.
Law helps the waking; luck may come to the sleeping.Danish.
Law is a bottomless pit; it is a cormorant, a harpy that devours everything.Arbuthnot.
Laws are not made for the good.Socrates.
Laws catch flies and let hornets go free.
Laws go the way kings direct.Spanish.
Laws go where dollars please.Portuguese.
Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.Goldsmith.
Laws have wax noses.French.
Laws were made for rogues.Italian.
Lawsuits and wine lead to the poor-house.German.
Like king, like law; like law, like people.Portuguese.
Like the judges of Gallicia, who for a half dozen chickens will dispense with a half dozen penal statutes.Spanish.
Litigation and gaming bring many to want.Sri Lankan.
Little do you know what a gloriously uncertain thing the law is.Plautus.
Little thieves are hanged by the neck, and great thieves by the purse.Italian, Dutch.
Little thieves have iron chains and great thieves gold ones.Dutch.
Men who go to law must expect to eat their ’taters without salt.Detroit Free Press.
Money and friendship break the arms of justice.Italian.
Money and friendship bribe justice.
New laws, new roguery.German.
New lords, new laws.
No man may be both accuser and judge.Plutarch.
No man testifying to his own baseness ought to be heard.
No one is a good judge in his own cause.Portuguese.
Nothing is law that is not reason.Powell.
One lawsuit begets another.Latin.
Some go to law for the wagging of a straw.
Strict law is often great injustice.Cicero.
Take a pint an’ ’gree the law’s costly.Scotch.
That trial is not fair where affection is the judge.
The best judge must drink water.German.
The hungry judges soon the sentence sign,
And wretches hang that jurymen may dine.Pope.
The hurrying of justice is the stepmother of misfortune.
The Jews spend at Easter, the Moors at marriages, and the Christians in suits of law.
The judge is condemned when the guilty are acquitted.Publius Syrus.
The law blushes when children correct their parents.Coke.
The law devised, its evasion contrived.
The law guards us from all evils but itself.Fielding.
The law has a nose of wax; one can twist it as he will.German.
The law is not the same at morning and night.
The law says what the king pleases.French.
The laws go as kings please.Don Quixote.
The laws of a nation form the most instructive part of their history.Gibbon.
The laws sometimes sleep but never die.
The litigious man;—who goes to law in hopes of ruining his opponent and gets ruined himself.Punch.
The magistrate’s sow gets out of every scrape.Spanish.
The man goes to court with one suit and returns with two.German.
The more laws the less justice.German.
The more laws, the more offenders.
The nobleman is always in the right when the peasant sues.Russian.
The only thing certain about litigation is its uncertainty.Bovee.
The rich man transgresses the law and the poor man is punished.Spanish.
The strictest law is oft the highest wrong.Terence.
The worst of a lawsuit is that out of one there grow a hundred.Spanish.
There is never a lawsuit but a woman is at the bottom of it.
There is no law without a hole in it if one could find it out.German.
There is scarcely a lawsuit unless a woman is the cause of it.Juvenal.
Those who begin a lawsuit, plant a palm tree which never gives fruit to those who plant it.
’Tis but to hazard my pretence
Where nothing’s certain but the expense.(To go to law.) Butler.
To know the law and do the right are two things.Danish.
To live by the bar you must live like a hermit and work like a horse.Lord Eldon.
To violate the law is the same crime in the emperor as in the subject.Chinese.
Truth is straight but judges are crooked.Russian.
When you go to law against the emperor, God himself should be the judge.Russian.
Where law ends tyranny begins.William Pitt.
Where there are many laws there are many enormities.
Where your father has been with ink, go not you with a bag; i.e., what your father has sold, go not to law for it.Spanish.
Who had a lawsuit about his cow, lost his calf also.German.
Who sues a mite will catch a mite.Oriental.
Who will prosecute a lawsuit must have much gold, good lawyers, much patience and much luck.German.
Who will win a lawsuit must have three sacks; one with briefs, one with gold and one with luck.German.
Who will live in peace must keep himself from women and lawsuits.German.
Who would win his suit must invite the judges to his table.German.
With law must the land be built.Danish.
You little know what a ticklish thing it is to go to law.Plautus.