Lawyer: One skilled in circumvention of the law
Source: The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Topic
Authority in this collection is approached primarily with suspicion, which may tell us something about the authors it draws from. Goethe's divide-and-rule-versus-unite-and-lead is the opening structural observation: division is the tactic of those who need to maintain power over others; leadership by unification is the harder and more admirable alternative. Rousseau on never exceeding your rights — so they will become unlimited — is the paradox of authority: voluntary restraint is the condition of expanding legitimacy. Voltaire on being wrong where the established authorities are right being dangerous is the permanent warning to anyone in a dissenting position. Jefferson on error needing government while truth stands alone reframes authority as inherently on the wrong side of epistemology: truth requires no enforcement. Calvin on where riches hold dominion the heart's God has lost his authority is the theological version of Rousseau's political claim: ultimate authority is not governmental or ecclesiastical but interior. Authority purchased at the cost of freedom is not authority but dominion, and the distinction matters.
Lawyer: One skilled in circumvention of the law
When we have the decrees of Nature, authority goes for nothing; reason is absolute.
It is not true that the mission of the law is to regulate our consciences, our ideas, our will, our education, our sentiments, our works, our exchanges, our gifts, our enjoyments.
The dignified parts of Government are those which bring it force - which attract its motive power.
The efficient parts only employ that power.
The efficient secret of the English constitution is the nearly complete fusion of the executive and legislative powers.
The Cabinet is an absolutely secret committee, which can dissolve the assembly which appointed it.