Law, in its most general and comprehensive sense, signifies a rule of action; and is applied indiscriminately to all kinds of action, whether animate, or inanimate, rational or irrational. Thus we say, the laws of motion, of gravitation, of optics,… — William Blackstone Copy Share Image
Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws. — William Blackstone Copy Share Image
It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer. — William Blackstone Copy Share 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.… — William Blackstone Copy Share Image
The Royal Navy of England hath ever been its greatest defense and ornament; it is its ancient and natural strength; the floating bulwark of… — William Blackstone Copy Share Image
And, lastly, to vindicate these rights, when actually violated and attacked, the subjects of England are entitled, in the first place, to the regular administration and free course of justice in the courts of law; next to the right of petitioning the king and parliament for redress of grievances; and, lastly, to the right of having and using arms for… — William Blackstone Copy Share
The most universal and effectual way of discovering the true meaning of law, when the words are dubious, is by considering the reason and… — William Blackstone Copy Share Image
Those rights, then, which God and nature have established, and are therefore called natural rights, such as life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by the municipal laws to be inviolate. On the contrary, no human legislature… — William Blackstone Copy Share
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 Copy Share Image
The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are to be found only in the holy scriptures.. are found upon comparison to be really part of the original law of nature. Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws; that is to say, no human laws… — William Blackstone Copy Share
Herein indeed consists the excellence of the English government, that all parts of it form a mutual check upon each other. — William Blackstone Copy Share Image
The public good is in nothing more essentially interested, than in the protection of every individual's private rights. — William Blackstone Copy Share Image
No enactment of man can be considered law unless it conforms to the law of God — William Blackstone Copy Share 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…” quote by William Blackstone](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f63/william-blackstone-14453_beneficial_trial-by-jury-is-a-privilege-of-the-high_211262.jpg)
