“It is true that the aristocracies seem to have abused their monopoly of legal knowledge; and at all events their exclusive possession of the law was a formidable impediment to the success of those popular movements which began to be universal in the western world.”
Author details
Related authors
Other Henry James Sumner Maine Quotes
The inquiries of the jurist are in truth prosecuted much as inquiry in physic and physiology was prosecuted before observation had taken the place of assumption.
Henry James Sumner Maine 
63% of people like this quote
The ancient Roman code belongs to a class of which almost every civilised nation in the world can show a sample, and which, so far as the Roman and Hellenic worlds were concerned, were largely diffused over them at epochs not widely distant from one another.
Henry James Sumner Maine
60% of people like this quote
In spite of overwhelming evidence, it is most difficult for a citizen of western Europe to bring thoroughly home to himself the truth that the civilisation which surrounds him is a rare exception in the history of the world.
Henry James Sumner Maine
58% of people like this quote
The ancient codes were doubtless originally suggested by the discovery and diffusion of the art of writing.
Henry James Sumner Maine
56% of people like this quote
The Roman jurisprudence has the longest known history of any set of human institutions.
Henry James Sumner Maine
56% of people like this quote