A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

One LAW for the rich and another for the poor
□1830 MARRYAT King’s Own I. xi. Is there nothing smuggled besides gin? Now, if the husbands and fathers of these ladies,—those who have themselves enacted the laws,— wink at their infringement, why should not others do so?.. There cannot be one law for the rich and another for the poor. 1913 Spectator 8 Nov. 757 The idea prevails abroad that there is one law for the ‘rich’ Englishman and another for the ‘poor’ foreigner. 1944 A. THIRKELL Headmistress iv. ‘You want one law for the people you think are rich and another law for the people you think are poor,’ I said. ‘Let me advise you to find out which are which before you make a fool of yourself.’ 2001 Spectator 29 Dec. 48 If he gets community service and a suspended sentence the hustlers will be out in force screaming the old ‘one law for the rich, another for the poor’ chestnut. "justice and injustice; law and lawyers
law see also HARD cases make bad law; IGNORANCE of the law is no excuse for breaking it; every LAND has its own law; NECESSITY knows no law; NEW lords, new laws; POSSESSION is nine points of the law; SELF-preservation is the first law of nature.
The more LAWS, the more thieves and bandits
Attributed to Lao Tzu (c 604-c 531 BC): The more laws and orders are made prominent, The more thieves and bandits there will be (Tao-te Ching lvii. in Wing-Tsit Chan (ed.) Source Book in Chinese Philosophy (1963), 166. Cf. ARCESILAUS (3rd cent. BC):
•.T./fc (_tn s_TObaeus Fioriiegium xiiii.
91); andACIUS Annals. 27 Corruptissima republica plurimae leges, the more corrupt the state the more numerous the laws.

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  1573 J. SANFORDE Garden of Pleasure 4 Where there are many lawes, there be also or else haue ben many vices. c 1620 MIDDLETON & ROWLEY Worid Tost at Tennis (Works ed. Bullen VII. 176) The more laws you make The more knaves thrive by’t. 1667 MILTON Paradise Lost xii. 283 So many Laws argue so many sins Among them. 1732 T. FULLER Gnomologia no. 4663 The more Laws the more offenders. 1766 O. GOLDSMITH Vicar of Wakefield xxvii. The multitude of laws produce new vices, and new vices call for fresh restraints. 2002 Times 19 Mar. 30 Citing the ancient Chinese Lao- tse’s dictum, the more laws, the more thieves and bandits, Norberg insists that ‘the commonest way of corupting a nation through and through is by stipulating permits and controls for production, for imports, for exports and investments’. "honesty and dishonesty; law and lawyers