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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.

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
Citizens
Diminishes
Mankind
Mischief
Liberty
Increases
Law
Diminish
Though
Fellow
Natural
Civil
Men
Fellows
Increase
Restrains

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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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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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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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Mankind will not be reasoned out of the feelings of humanity.
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No enactment of man can be considered law unless it conforms to the law of God
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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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Men was formed for society, and is neither capable of living alone, nor has the courage to do it.
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It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer.
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The husband and wife are one, and that one is the husband.
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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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Law is the embodiment of the moral sentiment of the people.
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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.
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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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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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The Bible has always been regarded as part of the Common Law of England.
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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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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 public good is in nothing more essentially interested, than in the protection of every individual's private rights.
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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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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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