The law is only one of several imperfect and more or less external ways of defending what is better in life against what is worse. By itself, the law can never create anything better…. Establishing respect for the law does not automatically ensure a better life for that, after all, is a job for people and not for laws and institutions.

Václav Havel (b. 1936), Czechoslovakian playwright, president. “The Power of the Powerless,” pt. 1, sect. 17, Living in Truth (1986).