Love Quote by Kenneth Starr

Starr’s line is courtroom absolutism dressed as civic alarm: perjury isn’t just another infraction, it’s an acid that eats the institution from the inside. The phrasing “heart and soul” moralizes what could be a technical point, turning evidentiary integrity into a kind of secular faith. That move matters because it yanks the debate out of partisan squabbling and into existential terms: if truth is optional, adjudication becomes theater.

The subtext is a hard-nosed institutional bargain. Courts don’t promise perfect outcomes; they promise a process that’s legitimate enough for losers to accept. Oath-taking is the ritual that makes that bargain feel binding. Starr’s threat - “let’s forget about courts” - isn’t really about abolishing the judiciary. It’s a rhetorical dare meant to shame anyone tempted to minimize lying as mere “private” misconduct. He’s implying that treating perjury as tolerable is a gateway to settling disputes through money, muscle, or political power: “other ways” is a polite euphemism for coercion and corruption.

Context sharpens the intent. Starr was a lawyer’s lawyer and, famously, the independent counsel in the Clinton investigation, arguing that deception in sworn testimony had public consequences. Read that way, the quote is both principle and prosecutorial framing: elevate the moral stakes so procedural enforcement looks like civic hygiene, not vengeance. Its effectiveness comes from that institutional switch: he’s not asking you to like the players, only to protect the game that keeps society from defaulting to brute force.