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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.

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
Right
Public
Tyrannical
Men
Law
Vested
United
Governments
Making
Wherever
Two
Powers
Together
Supreme
Government
Laws
Body
Liberty
Enforcing

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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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The husband and wife are one, and that one is the husband.
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The law, which restrains a man from doing mischief to his fellow citizens, though it diminishes the natural, increases the civil liberty of mankind.
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Law is the embodiment of the moral sentiment of the people.
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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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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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The third absolute right, inherent in every Englishman, is that of . . . the sacred and inviolable rights of private property.
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That the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution.
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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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Mankind will not be reasoned out of the feelings of humanity.
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It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer.
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Time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.
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No enactment of man can be considered law unless it conforms to the law of God
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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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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 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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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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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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Until the content of a belief is made clear, the appeal to accept the belief on faith is beside the point, for one would not know what one has accepted. The request for the meaning of a religious belief is logically prior to the question of accepting that belief on faith or to the question of whether that belief constitutes knowledge.
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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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