List of William Blackstone Quotes

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.

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.

Time Whereof The Memory Of Man Runneth Not To The Contrary.

There Is Nothing Which So Generally Strikes The Imagination, And Engages The Affections Of Mankind, As The Right Of Property; Or That Sole And Despotic Dominion Which One Man Claims And Exercises Over The External Things Of The World, In Total Exclusion Of The Right Of Any Other Individual In The Universe. And Yet There Are Very Few, That Will Give Themselves The Trouble To Consider The Original And Foundation Of This Right.

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.

Of Crimes Injurious To The Persons Of Private Subjects, The Most Principal And Important Is The Offense Of Taking Away That Life, Which Is The Immediate Gift Of The Great Creator; And Which Therefore No Man Can Be Entitled To Deprive Himself Or Another Of, But In Some Manner Either Expressly Commanded In, Or Evidently Deducible From, Those Laws Which The Creator Has Given Us; The Divine Laws, I Mean, Of Either Nature Or Revelation.

There Is Nothing Which So Generally Strikes The Imagination And Engages The Affections Of Mankind, As The Right Of Property.

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.

The Law Rarely Hesitates In Declaring Its Own Meaning; But The Judges Are Frequently Puzzled To Find Out The Meaning Of Others.

Mankind Will Not Be Reasoned Out Of The Feelings Of Humanity.

To Deny The Possibility, Nay, The Actual Existence Of Witchcraft And Sorcery, Is At Once Flatly To Contradict The Revealed Word Of God In Various Passages Both Of The Old And New Testament, And The Thing Itself Is A Truth To Which Every Nation In The World Hath, In Its Turn, Borne Testimony, By Either Example Seemingly Well Attested Or By Prohibitory Laws, Which At Least Suppose The Possibility Of A Commerce With Evil Spirits.

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 Should Be Suffered To Contradict These.