Franklin argues that laws can become ineffective when they are either too weak or too harsh. If rules carry little consequence, people may have little reason to obey them. If penalties are excessively severe, officials, courts or communities may hesitate to enforce them because the punishment appears disproportionate to the offence.

The saying therefore points to proportionality as an important part of effective law. A rule must be strong enough to command respect while remaining reasonable enough to be applied consistently. Franklin does not suggest that every law can be reduced to a simple balance between leniency and severity, since enforcement also depends on legitimacy, institutions and public attitudes. His broader point is that laws work best when both obedience and enforcement are realistically supported by the scale of the consequences attached to them.