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).
