quotations about lawyers
Lawyers must pry into the recesses of the human heart, and become well acquainted with the whole moral world, that they may discover the abstract reason of all laws.
LORD BOLINGBROKE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Lawyers are like scissors; they never cut each other, but what is between them.
ANONYMOUS
The Guernsey Magazine, Aug. 1874
The lawyer is judged by the virtue of his pleading, and not by the issue of the cause.
FRANCIS BACON
The Advancement of Learning
There are plenty of reasons for young and aspiring attorneys to stress. Student loans. Gradution. Finding a job. Keeping that job. Impressing the boss. Billable-hour pressures. Maybe even hanging your own shingle. That's not even considering the added layer of starting or taking care of a family for many. It's a weight more and more young attorneys are turning to alcohol to handle, according to a recent study. The numbers show about one in five attorneys of the 12,825 licensed, employed attorneys surveyed screened positive for "hazardous" or "harmful" levels of drinking that can lead to dependence.
DAVID CHAPMAN
"Alcohol an issue for young lawyers", Jacksonville Daily Record, March 21, 2016
The ablest lawyers are always associated with the biggest fees.
CLARENCE DARROW
remarks at Physicians Club of Chicago, Feb. 16, 1904
When the monetary damages are smaller, lawyers will find themselves less zealous in their pursuit of what they call justice.
DEAN O'HARE
speech, Oct. 1995
Lawyers are men whom we hire to protect us from lawyers.
ELBERT HUBBARD
Fra Magazine, Sep. 1911
Lawyers get you out'n the kind of trouble you'd never get in if there was no lawyers.
KEN ALSTAD
Savvy Sayin's
My lord, lawyers are a dangerous species of animals till ha'e any dependence upon--they are always starting punctilios and deeficulties among friends. Why, my dear lord, it is their interest that aw mankind should be at variance; for disagreement is the vary manure wi' which they enrich and fatten the land of leetigation; and as they find that constantly produces the best crop, depend upon it they will always be sure till lay it on ass thick ass they can.
CHARLES MACKLIN
The Man of the World
Lawyers are like the knights of old. You can use them to plunder other people's stuff.
GENE GORDON
Restoring America's Future
The personality traits most common among lawyers are not those usually associated with happy people.
NANCY LEVIT & DOUGLAS O. LINDER
The Happy Lawyer
I do not believe in lawyers, in that mode of attacking or defending a man, because you descend to meet the judge on his own ground, and, in cases of the highest importance, it is of no consequence whether a man breaks a human law or not. Let lawyers decide trivial cases.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
"A Plea for Captain John Brown"
A lawyer, that entangles all men's honesties
And lives like a spider in a cobweb lurking,
And catching at all flies that pass his pitfalls.
FRANCIS BEAUMONT & JOHN FLETCHER
The Spanish Curate
I don't know who the great lawyers are, and I presume you can't get to them. I know of no case where it can be said for certain that they took part. They defend some people, but you can't get them to do that through your own efforts, they only defend the ones they want to defend. But I assume a case they take on must have progressed beyond the lower court. It's better not to think of them at all, otherwise you'll find the consultations with the other lawyers, their advice and their assistance, extremely disgusting and useless.
FRANZ KAFKA
The Trial
Lawyers are like foxes, small and innocuous, but all the time stealthily sniffing the air.
MICHAEL O'SULLIVAN
Easter at Tobruk
We don't operate a system that guarantees a trial lawyer will really know what he or she is doing before handling a trial. Qualify as an attorney and you immediately have the right to screw up somebody's case in court. We lawyers have been left with a huge field in which to demonstrate our incompetence.
KEITH EVANS
Common Sense Rules of Advocacy for Lawyers
Lawyers are guardians of the legal order.
PHILIP WOOD
The Fall of the Priests and the Rise of the Lawyers
Lawyers will always buckle under to something, whether its bribes, violence, court orders, or the weight of their own bullshit.
JAMES ALAN GARDNER
Ascending
There is not a more fatal error to young lawyers than relying too much on speechmaking. If any one, upon his rare powers of speaking, shall claim an exemption from the drudgery of the law, his case is a failure in advance.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
notes for a lecture, Jul. 1, 1850
Lawyers are like beavers. They get in the mainstream and dam it up.
JOHN NAISBITT
Megatrends