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.....These decrees of yours are no different from spiders' webs. They'll restrain anyone weak and insignificant who gets caught in them, but they'll be torn to shreds by people with power and wealth.
..........— Anacharsis (flourished circa 600 B.C.E.), Scythian philosopher and traveler. To Solon, concerning the latter's laws, as recounted by Plutarch in Greek Lives (1998 translation by Robin Waterfield). More widely quoted as "Written laws are like spiders' webs, and will like them only entangle and hold the poor and weak, while the rich and powerful easily break through them," but I could not discover that translator's name.
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