Gambling is a kind of tacit confession that those engaged therein do, in general, exceed the bounds of their respective fortunes; and therefore they cast lots to determine on whom the ruin shall at present fall, that the rest may be saved a little longer.
—William Blackstone
Topics: Gambling
Aristotle himself has said, speaking of the laws of his own country, that jurisprudence, or the knowledge of those laws, is the principal and most perfect branch of ethics.
—William Blackstone
Topics: Law
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.
—William Blackstone
Topics: Property
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
The keeping of one day in seven holy, as a time of relaxation and refreshment as well as public worship, is of inestimable benefit to a state, considered merely as a civil institution.
—William Blackstone
Law is the embodiment of the moral sentiment of the people.
—William Blackstone
Topics: Law
Man was formed for society and is neither capable of living alone, nor has the courage to do it.
—William Blackstone
Topics: Solitude
Of all the parts of a law, the most effectual is the vindicatory; for it is but lost labor to say, “Do this, or avoid that,” unless we also declare, “This shall be the consequence of your non compliance.” The main strength and force of a law consists in the penalty annexed to it.
—William Blackstone
Topics: Law
The sciences are of 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
Topics: Science
The Royal Navy of England hath ever been its greatest defense and ornament; it is its ancient and natural strength; the floating bulwark of the island.
—William Blackstone
Topics: Army, The Military, Navy
It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer
—William Blackstone
Topics: Suffering, Guilt
Every wanton and causeless restraint of the will of the subject, whether practised by a monarch, a nobility, or a popular assembly, is a degree of tyranny.
—William Blackstone
Topics: Tyranny
A corruption of morals usually follows a profanation of the Sabbath.
—William Blackstone
The public good is in nothing more essentially interested than in the protection of every individual’s private rights.
—William Blackstone
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 has power to abridge or destroy them, unless the owner shall himself commit some act that amounts to a forfeiture.
—William Blackstone
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- George Wilshere, 1st Baron Bramwell English Judge
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. American Jurist, Author
- Hugo Black American Politician
- Felix Frankfurter American Judge
- Andrew Jackson American Head of State
- Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey Scottish Judge, Critic
- Earl Warren American Judge
- John Marshall American Judge
- William O. Douglas American Judge
- Randy Pausch American Computer Scientist
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