Some of my favourite quotes. Judges were once lawyers.

Lawyers are the only persons in whom ignorance of the law is not punished. JEREMY BENTHAM, The Canadian Bar Journal, Jun. 1966

I know you lawyers can with ease,

Twist words and meanings as you please;

That language, by your skill made pliant,

Will bend to favour every client;

That 'tis the fee directs the sense,

To make out either side's pretense. JOHN GAY, "The Dog and the Fox"   

 

Honest and peace-loving people shun the Courts and are prepared to suffer loss rather than fall into a Lawyer's clutches. PETER DE NORONHA, The Pageant of Life


Lawyers are merchants of misery. NANCY LEVIT & DOUGLAS O. LINDER, The Happy Lawyer

Law is an imperfect profession in which success can rarely be achieved without some sacrifice of principle. Thus all practicing lawyers -- and most others in the profession -- will necessarily be imperfect, especially in the eyes of young idealists. There is no perfect justice, just as there is no absolute in ethics. But there is perfect injustice, and we know it when we see it.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, Letters to a Young Lawye

Lawyers enjoy a little mystery, you know. Why, if everybody came forward and told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth straight out, we should all retire to the workhouse. DOROTHY L. SAYERS, Clouds of Witness

The personality traits most common among lawyers are not those usually associated with happy people.NANCY LEVIT & DOUGLAS O. LINDER, The Happy Lawyer

Jury--Twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer. LENORA OLIVER, Herald, 1938

 It is not a Justice System.  It is just a system.  ~Bob Enyart

 An appeal... is when you ask one court to show its contempt for another court.  ~Finley Peter Dunne

 The houses of lawyers are roofed with the skins of litigants.  ~Welsh Proverb


 A lawyer is a gentleman who rescues your estate from your enemies and keeps it for himself.  ~Lord Brougham

 Judge:  a law student who marks his own papers.  ~H.L. Mencken

 There is no such thing as justice - in or out of court.  ~Clarence Darrow, 1936


Good lawyers know the law; great lawyers know the judge.  ~Author Unknown

 Judges are but men, and are swayed like other men by vehement prejudices.  This is corruption in reality, give it whatever other name you please.  ~David Dudley Field