10 quotes
It is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.
Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765)
Time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.
Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765)
That the king can do no wrong, is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution.
Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765)
Nothing therefore is to be more avoided, in a free constitution, than uniting the provinces of a judge and a minister of state.
Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765)
What they do, no authority upon earth can undo.
Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765)
The royal navy of England hath ever been its greatest defense and ornament; it is its ancient and natural strength; the floating bulwark of our island.
Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765)
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.
All persecution and oppression of weak consciences on the score of religious persuasions, are highly unjustifiable upon every principle of natural reason, civil liberty, or sound religion.
Man was formed for society and is neither capable of living alone, nor has the courage to do it.
Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765)
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.