The greater the number of laws and enactments, the more thieves and robbers there will be. – Lao-tzu

The more laws the more offenders. – Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk. – Henry David Thoreau

Judges are but men, and are swayed like other men by vehement prejudices. This is corruption in reality, give it whatever other name you please. – David Dudley Field