Quote

The law rarely hesitates in declaring its own meaning but the Judges are frequently puzzled to find out the meaning of others.

William Blackstone

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Find
Declaring
Judges
Frequently
Rarely
Judging
Meaning
Law
Hesitates
Others
Puzzled

More quotes by William Blackstone

Image
Man must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator. This will of his Maker is called the Law of Nature. This Law of Nature is superior to any other. No human laws are of any validity if contrary to this.
William Blackstone
Image
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
Image
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.
William Blackstone
Image
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
Image
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.
William Blackstone
Image
The Bible has always been regarded as part of the Common Law of England.
William Blackstone
Image
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.
William Blackstone
Image
That the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution.
William Blackstone
Image
[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.
William Blackstone
Image
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.
William Blackstone
Image
Time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.
William Blackstone
Image
No enactment of man can be considered law unless it conforms to the law of God
William Blackstone
Image
Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws.
William Blackstone
Image
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.
William Blackstone
Image
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.
William Blackstone
Image
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.
William Blackstone
Image
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.
William Blackstone
Image
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.
William Blackstone
Image
The third absolute right, inherent in every Englishman, is that of . . . the sacred and inviolable rights of private property.
William Blackstone
Image
Free men have arms slaves do not.
William Blackstone