Our civil laws will never be supple enough to fit the immense and changing variety of facts. Laws change more slowly than custom, and though dangerous when they fall behind the times are more dangerous still when they presume to anticipate custom.

Laws change more slowly than custom, and though dangerous when they fall behind the times are more dangerous still when the presume to anticipate custom.

It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be to-morrow.

Very good laws may be ill timed.

Laws are confusing documents. They get in the way of justice.

Souvent ils les ont faites trop subtiles, et ont suivi des idées logiciennes plutôt que l’équité naturelle. Dans la suite elles ont été trouvées trop dures, et par un esprit d’équité on a cru devoir s’en écarter ; mais ce remède était un nouveau mal. Quelles que soient les lois, il faut toujours les suivre, et les regarder comme la conscience publique, à laquelle celle des particuliers doit se conformer toujours.

Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.

Laws which are consistent in theory often prove chaotic in practice.

In part because there are so many laws to break; and the more laws there are to break, the harder it is to prevent them from being broken

Laws are never as effective as habits.

We of Betand do not change our laws readily, so says my father, but we interpret them to our needs.

The more laws a society has, the less justice

Toute loi trop souvent transgressée est mauvaise: c'est au législateur à l'abroger ou à la changer.

Very few laws remain the same. Once enacted, they are likely to be studied, modified, amended, then often repealed altogether. This constant tinkering by judges and lawmakers is usually a good thing. Bad laws are weeded out. Weak laws are improved. Good laws are fine tuned.<ref>