The Ox Bow Incident quotes

I recently finished "The Ox Bow Incident" by Walter Van Tilburg Clark and thought I'd post some of the more interesting quotes from the book. Keep in mind, I'm not saying I agree or disagree with the quotes I've posted below, but I find them worthy of thought and discussion.

"Law is more than the words that put it on the books; law is more than any decisions that may be made from it; law is more than the particular code of it stated at any one time or in any one place or nation; more than any man, lawyer or judge, sheriff or jailer, who may represent it. True law, the code of justice, the essence of our sensations of right and wrong, is the conscience of society. It has taken thousands of years to develop, and it is the greatest, the most distinguishing quality which has evolved with mankind. None of man's temples, none of his religions, none of his weapons, his tools, his arts, his sciences, nothing else he has grown to, is so great a thing as his justice, his sense of justice. The true law is something in itself, it is the spirit of the moral nature of man; it is an existence apart, like God, and as worthy of worship as God. If we can touch God at all, where do we touch him save in the conscience? And what is the conscience of any man save his little fragment of the conscience of all men in all time?"
"...night is like a room; it makes the little things in your head too important. A man's not clearheaded at night."

"All any of us really want any more is power. We'd buck the pack if we dared. We don't, so we use it; we trick it to help us in our own little killings. We've mastered the horses and cattle. Now we want to master each other, make cattle of men. Kill them to feed ourselves. The smaller the pack the more we get."

"We're doing it because we're in the pack, and because we're afraid not to be in the pack. We don't dare show our pack weakness; we don't dare resist the pack."

So if you'd like to comment or discuss anything you've read above, or would just like to talk about the book in general, please feel free to comment below.

Until Next Time...
Incidentally Yours,
Michael