“Law consists of the rules and methods by which society compels or restrains the actions of its members.”
In the legal sense—A law is a rule which the courts will enforce. The courts will not enforce all rules, and therefore there are many rules which are not law in the legal sense.
“Law might be defined as the aggregate of those rules and principles promulgated by legislative authority or established by local custom, and our laws are the resultant derived from a combination of the divine or moral laws, the laws of nature and human experience, as such resultant has been evolved by human intellect, influenced by the virtue of the ages.”—Words and Phrases, p. 33.
“Law has her seat in the bosom of God; her voice in the harmony of the world.”—Hooker.
“Laws are the very bulwark of liberty. They define every man's rights, and stand between and defend individual liberties of all.”—J. G. Holland.
“Laws exist in vain for those who do not have the courage and the means to defend them.”—Thomas B. Macauley.
“Laws, written, if not on stone tablets, yet on the azure of infinitude, in the inner heart of God's creation, certain as life, certain as death, are they, and thou shalt not disobey them.”—Thomas Carlyle.
“A rule of civil conduct prescribed by the supreme power in a state.”—Bouvier's Law Dictionary.
“A child, an apprentice, a pupil, a mariner, and a soldier owe respectively obedience to the lawful commands of the parent, the master, the teacher, the captain of the ship, and the military officer having command: and in case of disobedience submission may be enforced by correction.”—Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Vol. II, p. 531.
“To obey is better than sacrifice.”