51 Quotes by William Blackstone

Free men have arms; slaves do not.

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.

No enactment of man can be considered law unless it conforms to the law of God.

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.

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 presumptive evidence of felony should be admitted cautiously; for the law holds it better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent party suffer.