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So great moreover is the regard of the law for private property, that it will not authorize the least violation of it no, not even for the general good of the whole community.

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
General
Least
Authorize
Law
Moreover
Community
Violation
Whole
Private
Great
Property
Even
Good
Regard

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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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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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It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer.
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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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In all tyrannical governments the supreme magistracy, or the right both of making and of enforcing the laws, is vested in one and the same man, or one and the same body of men and wherever these two powers are united together, there can be no public liberty.
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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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Every wanton and causeless restraint of the will of the subject, whether practiced by a monarch, a nobility, or a popular assembly, is a degree of tyranny.
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The third absolute right, inherent in every Englishman, is that of . . . the sacred and inviolable rights of private property.
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Men was formed for society, and is neither capable of living alone, nor has the courage to do it.
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No enactment of man can be considered law unless it conforms to the law of God
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The Bible has always been regarded as part of the Common Law of England.
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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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Law is the embodiment of the moral sentiment of the people.
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Free men have arms slaves do not.
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The most universal and effectual way of discovering the true meaning of law, when the words are dubious, is by considering the reason and spirit of it or the cause which moved the legislator to enact it. for when this reason ceased, the law itself ought likewise to cease with it.
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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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The royal navy of England hath ever been its greatest defence and ornament it is its ancient and natural strength, - the floating bulwark of our island.
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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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