Contents
-AUTHOR INDEX -KEYWORD INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| |
|
NUMBER:
|
1009 |
|
AUTHOR:
|
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) |
|
QUOTATION:
|
A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means. |
|
ATTRIBUTION:
|
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to John B. Colvin, September 20, 1810.—The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Paul L. Ford, vol. 9, p. 279 (1898). |
|
SUBJECTS:
|
Law |
| |
