Quote #12

It is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.

More from William Blackstone

  1. The founders of the English laws have with excellent forecast contrived, that no man should be called to answer to the king for any capital…
  2. Of crimes injurious to the persons of private subjects, the most principal and important is the offense of taking away that life, which is …
  3. All the several pleas and excuses, which protect the committer of a forbidden act from the punishment which is otherwise annexed thereto, m…
  4. That the king can do no wrong, is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution.
  5. There is nothing which so generally strikes the imagination, and engages the affections of mankind, as the right of property; or that sole …
  6. Time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.
  7. The royal navy of England hath ever been its greatest defense and ornament; it is its ancient and natural strength; the floating bulwark of…
  8. In this distinct and separate existence of the judicial power, in a peculiar body of men, nominated indeed, but not removable at pleasure, …

All William Blackstone quotes