| ▲ | NoSalt 3 hours ago |
| > "If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him." ~ Cardinal Richelieu (Cardinal and former Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of France) |
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| ▲ | snowwrestler 2 hours ago | parent [-] |
| This apocryphal quote was a statement about his overwhelming power (strong enough to hang people who have done no wrong), not on the mutability of the law. It is frequently mis-applied. |
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| ▲ | wredcoll 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Why would he need any lines then? | | |
| ▲ | Joker_vD 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | The quote is indeed about the law being a nose of wax, to borrow an old English phrase, and how with sympathetic enough courts almost any decision could be upheld. But it's nothing new, precisely the same crime can yield drastically different judgements depending on e.g. the defensive attorney's experience. | | |
| ▲ | onlyrealcuzzo 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | > e.g. the defensive attorney's experience. Which is another way of saying the defense's wealth. |
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| ▲ | snowwrestler an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | He was powerful enough to hang someone on a flimsy excuse, but not so powerful that he did not need a flimsy excuse. Right in that sweet spot. |
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