Legal aid gets a bad press. Some rail against handing taxpayers' money to criminals; others attack fat cat lawyers, while some argue that we spend far more on legal aid than other countries. But let's get some facts straight: saying that legal aid is just about criminals is wrong - most goes to people before any decision is taken on their guilt.

Legal aid is central to righting wrongs and rectifying injustice.

Major miscarriages of justice have occurred because of the absence of proper legal representation.

Being reliant on legal aid is probably inconceivable to most of us. But this is no different from other branches of the welfare state established at the same time as our legal aid system - being diagnosed with a major illness and needing the NHS, or losing a job and needing the support of social security.

Labour was founded to make the lives of working people better and to create more opportunities for everyone. Whether it's aspiring to work as a nurse in a hospital or setting up and running your own business, Labour should be about ensuring fairness so that everyone has the same chance in life to reach their goals.

We should celebrate when optimism and hard work triumph over cynicism, lethargy, and fatalism.

The best way for people to understand each other's faith is to share experiences.

Reasoning draws a conclusion, but does not make the conclusion certain, unless the mind discovers it by the path of experience.

The strongest arguments prove nothing so long as the conclusions are not verified by experience. Experimental science is the queen of sciences and the goal of all speculation.

All science requires mathematics. The knowledge of mathematical things is almost innate in us. This is the easiest of sciences, a fact which is obvious in that no one's brain rejects it; for laymen and people who are utterly illiterate know how to count and reckon.

For the things of this world cannot be made known without a knowledge of mathematics.

Argument is conclusive, but it does not remove doubt, so that the mind may rest in the sure knowledge of the truth, unless it finds it by the method of experiment.

Uber is efficiency with elegance on top. That's why I buy an iPhone instead of an average cell phone, why I go to a nice restaurant and pay a little bit more. It's for the experience.

Based on my experience, I would say that rather than taking lessons in how to become an entrepreneur, you should jump into the pool and start swimming.

There is a core independence and dignity you get when you control your own time.

There's been so much corruption and so much cronyism in the taxi industry and so much regulatory capture, that if you ask for permission upfront for something that's already legal, you'll never get it.

Acknowledging mistakes and learning from them are the first steps.

Sports uplift us. It's celebratory, gives us optimism and joy.

Skydiving is special because it's almost the closest to an out-of-body experience you can have. We live in such a stimulated, connected, busy world - to be up in the air with nothing but yourself and the landscape is incredibly peaceful.

My dad discouraged me and my older sister watching too much TV. I don't want to portray them as crazy hippies, but I definitely feel like I was influenced by their creativity. But did I want to have an acting career myself? I didn't think so. I think my goal really was to direct. I really wanted to make stories in that capacity.

When I was in junior high school, friends and I were in a consciousness-raising group, a term that now seems quaint like a butter churn, but it was very powerful. It was a really wonderful experience.

Ages of experience have taught humanity that the commitment of a husband and wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society.

Marriage cannot be severed from its cultural, religious and natural roots without weakening the good influence of society.

Frivolous lawsuits are booming in this county. The U.S. has more costs of litigation per person than any other industrialized nation in the world, and it is crippling our economy.

We can think so much about life and take ourselves so seriously; I mean, I like to tell people, 'Don't take life too seriously' because you'll cloud the experience. That's what the meaning of life is to me - being able to enjoy the moment.

I believe sanity and realism can be restored to the teaching of Mathematical Statistics most easily and directly by entrusting such teaching largely to men and women who have had personal experience of research in the Natural Sciences.

I decided blacks should not have to experience the difficulties I had faced, so I decided to open a flying school and teach other black women to fly.

As seismologists gained more experience from earthquake records, it became obvious that the problem could not be reduced to a single peak acceleration. In fact, a full frequency of vibrations occurs.

Nothing is less predictable than the development of an active scientific field.

Compassion may be defined as the capacity to be attentive to the experience of others, to wish the best for others, and to sense what will truly serve others.

We live in a time when science is validating what humans have known throughout the ages: that compassion is not a luxury; it is a necessity for our well-being, resilience, and survival.

Experience tells you what to do; confidence allows you to do it.

There is nothing that anyone can say to prepare you for childbirth. Each woman's experience is so different; you never know how it will be for you!

I think we love bacon because it has all the qualities of an amazing sensory experience. When we cook it, the sizzling sound is so appetizing, the aroma is maddening, the crunch of the texture is so gratifying and the taste delivers every time.

I woke up on May 15, 1991, the day of my Barnard graduation, and I said to myself, 'By the end of today you will decide what you want to do with the rest of your life.'

Romantic love can be terrifying. We experience another human being as enormously important to us. So there is surrender - not a surrender to the other person so much as to our feeling for the other person. What is the obstacle? The possibility of loss.

There is overwhelming evidence that the higher the level of self-esteem, the more likely one will be to treat others with respect, kindness, and generosity.

Live with integrity, respect the rights of other people, and follow your own bliss.

Productive achievement is a consequence and an expression of health and self-esteem, not its cause.

To love a person is to know and love the person. But we can pick up an enormous amount about another human being just by exchanging a couple of sentences. It's not yet knowledge; it's an intuition that motivates you to want to find out more.

Tell me how a person judges his or her self-esteem, and I will tell you how that person operates at work, in love, in sex, in parenting, in every important aspect of existence - and how high he or she is likely to rise. The reputation you have with yourself - your self-esteem - is the single most important factor for a fulfilling life.

Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember.

Every time I look at you I get a fierce desire to be lonesome.

The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too.

Schizophrenia beats dining alone.

For me, it was an amazing experience. I saw where my father came from. I was given a royal welcome in El Bireh - they even slaughtered a sheep in my honor.

Too often, customary practices and discrimination on the basis of gender, ethnicity, race, religion, social status, or class are the root sources of pervasive inequality in many countries.

When the people gave them the mandate to govern in 2008, these UDP leaders had one thing in mind: They run things. They forgot all their lofty promises to the people. They set out to crush the PUP and to erase all the accomplishments of the PUP years in government.

Independence did not mean chauvinism and narrow nationalism.

We don't think it is fair for these environmental groups to be beating up Belize over this little dam when their own countries have so many of them. Now they are trying to tell us we can't have one.