Thread by @Robin_C_Douglas

The Wisdom of Jolyon Maugham KC

A thread of quotations from Jollers' new book.

The law "is the sluice gate through which the river of humanity flows".

"The hand of a good lawyer holds the mightiest pen. Its stroke can enlist the power of the State."

"Knowing you are wearing blinkers is better than not knowing."

"The life I have is hard, but I got to choose it, and the road that brought me here I did not."

"My natural tribe are the winners."

"Our constitution and our legal system are the victory dance of power. To engage with them is to bless or curse them, to join the dance."

[Some of this stuff reads like a badly translated Confucian classic]

"Why turn off cruise control on the endless highway of life?"

"Those months will always remain written on my face."

"Giving a speech on receiving the Praeses Elit in Dublin, a prize awarded to those who have advanced the discourse in their line of work and are a source of inspiration to young people, I reflected on Gandalf standing on the bridge at Khazad-dûm in The Lord of the Rings."

"It is hard to feel optimistic at present - but things change in cycles. Or, as the conservative folk singer, Bob Roberts, put it in a film of the same name: 'The times they are a changing back'."

If we had a written constitution: "We would then have democracy as process, not event. Each day would be Valentine's Day."

The law "can't compensate you for a forever-vacant left side of the bed. Or that your newborn son will never get the inside track on how to wee standing up."

"To ask for a cohering intellectual architecture is to conceive of the law as a purpose-built town, a Welwyn Garden City if you like, rather than the London that it is"

Jollers reflects on historical divorce law: "Penetrative sex was grounds for divorce but you could blow your neighbour to your heart's content (assuming the heart to be the appropriate organ)."

"The prime minister didn't just stand and watch Hancock's smash-and-grab raid on our constitution - he drove the getaway car and fenced the proceeds"

"But public anger at lawbreaking is not a currency with a fixed value. Presence makes the heart go wander."

PRESENCE. MAKES. THE. HEART. GO. WANDER.

"I remember being so self-conscious about how I walked that I struggled to make it across the playground at school. And worrying about having had puffy nipples."

Somehow, the idea that Jollers found the task of walking a bit too challenging seems entirely believable.