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To say that the law of force is abandoned because force is regular, unopposed, and beneficially exercised, is to say that day and night are now such well-established institutions that the sun and moon are mere superfluities.

— James Fitzjames Stephen Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (1873)

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Nature

More quotes by James Fitzjames Stephen

Men have an all but incurable propensity to try to prejudge all the great questions which interest them by stamping their prejudices upon their language.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (1873)

Originality consists in thinking for yourself, not in thinking differently from other people.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (1873)

To try to make men equal by altering social arrangements is like trying to make the cards of equal value by shuffling the pack.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (1873)

The criminal law stands to the passion of revenge in much the same relation as marriage to the sexual appetite.

A General View Of The Criminal Law Of England (1863)

Persuasion, indeed, is a kind of force. It consists in showing a person the consequences of his actions. It is, in a word, force applied through the mind.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (1873)

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The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.

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Matter gave birth to a passion that has no equal, which proceeded from something contrary to nature. Then there arises a disturbance in its whole body.

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Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: James Fitzjames Stephen (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.