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It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer.

William Blackstone

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William Blackstone
Age: 56 †
Born: 1723
Born: July 10
Died: 1780
Died: February 14
Barrister
Judge
Jurist
Politician
University Teacher
Writer
the City
Sir William Blackstone
Guilty
Innocent
Suffer
Ten
Justice
Fairness
Suffering
Innocence
Persons
Escape
Better
Ethics

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There is nothing which so generally strikes the imagination and engages the affections of mankind, as the right of property.
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The public good is in nothing more essentially interested, than in the protection of every individual's private rights.
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Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws.
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Trial by jury is a privilege of the highest and most beneficial nature [and] our most important guardian both of public and private liberty. The liberties of England cannot but subsist so long as this palladium remains sacred and inviolate, not only from all open attacks, ... but also from all secret machinations, which may sap and undermine it.
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Mankind will not be reasoned out of the feelings of humanity.
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By marriage the husband and wife are one person in law, that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during marriage.
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The Bible has always been regarded as part of the Common Law of England.
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Gaming is a kind of tacit confession that the company engaged therein do in general exceed the bounds of their respective fortunes, and therefore they cast lots to determine upon whom the ruin shall at present fall, that the rest may be saved a little longer.
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No outward doors of a man's house can in general be broken open to execute any civil process though in criminal cases the public safety supersedes the private.
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No enactment of man can be considered law unless it conforms to the law of God
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Time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.
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If [the legislature] will positively enact a thing to be done, the judges are not at liberty to reject it, for that were to set the judicial power above that of the legislature, which would be subversive of all government.
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[Self-defense is] justly called the primary law of nature, so it is not, neither can it be in fact, taken away by the laws of society.
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Law is the embodiment of the moral sentiment of the people.
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Punishments of unreasonable severity, especially where indiscriminately afflicted, have less effect in preventing crimes, and amending the manners of a people, than such as are more merciful in general, yet properly intermixed with due distinctions of severity.
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Herein indeed consists the excellence of the English government, that all parts of it form a mutual check upon each other.
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Free men have arms slaves do not.
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Man..must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator, for he is entirely a dependent being..And, consequently, as man depends absolutely upon his Maker for everything, it is necessary that he should in all points conform to his Maker's will.
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The law rarely hesitates in declaring its own meaning but the Judges are frequently puzzled to find out the meaning of others.
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The sciences are of a sociable disposition, and flourish best in the neighborhood of each other nor is there any branch of learning but may be helped and improved by assistance drawn from other arts.
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