Law

We need laws written by people who have confronted life in the real world, not in the sheltered world of trust fund recipients or the insulated cocoon of academia. Nor do we need people who have nothing to offer in the private sector that would earn them more than what they currently receive in Congress.

— Thomas Sowell; Dismantling America

[Justice] Holmes wrote that he did not "think it desirable that the judges should undertake to renovate the law." If the law needed changing, that was what the democratic process was for. Indeed, that was what the separation of powers in legislative, executive and judicial branches by the Constitution of the United States was for.

"The criterion of constitutionality," he said, "is not whether we believe the law to be for the public good." That was for other people to decide. For judges, he said: "When we know what the source of the law has said it shall be, our authority is at an end."

One of Holmes' judicial opinions ended: "I am not at liberty to consider the justice of the Act."

Some have tried to depict Justice Holmes as someone who saw no need for morality in the law. On the contrary, he said: "The law is the witness and external deposit of our moral life." But a society's need to put moral content into its laws did not mean that it was the judge's job to second-guess the moral choices made by others who were authorized to make such choices.

Justice Holmes understood the difference between the rule of law and the rule of lawyers and judges.

— Thomas Sowell; Dismantling America

Like it or not we live in a world of rules. Success comes with understanding the rules and working as efficiently as possible in accordance with those rules—which is why it's smart to have a good lawyer on your team! Without rules, civilization crumbles. For example, as an American, if I decide to follow American driving rules in England, a country where they drive on the other side of the road, chances are I will wind up in jail or in the hospital.

Problems occur in a person's life when he or she does not follow the rules. For example, if a person smokes, eats, drinks, and does not exercise, violating the rules of his body, the person will have health problems. The same is true with money. If a person robs a store, the chances are that the person will wind up in jail. If a person cheats on his or her spouse, that person will have severe personal problems. Breaking the rules is not good for life, families, businesses, or nations.

— Robert Kiyosaki; Rich Dad's Conspiracy of The Rich