Quotation of the Day…

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… is from page 326 of Richard Epstein’s magnificent 1995 volume, Simple Rules for a Complex World:

Law’s stock in trade is the use of collective might, and the sanctions that it imposes must be reserved for the most serious of social violations – which typically involve using force and not keeping serious contractual engagements. A legal system is not a complete social system, and we should not reflexively invoke legal remedies to enforce whatever conduct we think to be socially desirable. The uncritical reliance on coercion drives out informal sanctions and curtails possibilities for displaying the personal virtues we all prize.