Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through. – Jonathan Swift, A Critical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind, 1707

Somebody recently figured out that we have 35 million laws to enforce the ten commandments. – Attributed to both Bert Masterson and Earl Wilson

In keeping people straight, principle is not as powerful as a policeman. – Abel Hermant, Le Bourgeois, 1906

The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual crime. – Max Stirner, The Ego and His Own