What does this quote mean?

“Law is reason without desire.”

Good law is idealized as judgment governed by reason rather than by the changing appetites or personal passions of an individual ruler.

Source note: Politics, Book III, William Ellis translation; the line appears in a discussion of law and political rule.

“Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?”

The rhetorical question mocks disproportionate retaliation by comparing an elaborate punishment with the crushing of something slight and fragile.

Source note: Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot, Sporus passage; the famous image occurs inside a sharp personal satire, so the hostile literary context is retained.

“Receive an injury rather than do one.”

Personal suffering is treated as morally preferable to becoming the person who deliberately inflicts unjust harm on another.

Source note: The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, maxim 5, in Darius Lyman’s 1856 English rendering; maxim order can vary across editions.

“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”

Status and authority are presented as carrying anxiety and responsibility rather than guaranteeing comfort or peace of mind.

Source note: Act 3, Scene 1; King Henry reflects on the sleepless burden of rule.

“By doing just actions we come to be just.”

Character is formed through repeated conduct: practicing just actions helps turn justice from an abstract ideal into a stable disposition.

Source note: Nicomachean Ethics, Book II; Aristotle explains virtue as something developed through corresponding actions.

“Let us have faith that right makes might.”

Lincoln reverses the idea that power establishes right, arguing that moral judgment should guide sustained political action rather than treating strength or intimidation as proof of justice.

Source note: Cooper Union Address, February 27, 1860, closing passage. Lincoln is defending Republican opposition to the extension of slavery into federal territories; the line retains that antislavery political context.