William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield Quotes

• The air of England is too pure for a slave to breathe, and so everyone who breathes it becomes free. Everyone who comes to this island is entitled to the protection of English law, whatever oppression he may have suffered and whatever may be the colour of his skin.

  William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

  War, Law, Islands

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• True liberty can exist only when justice is equally administered to all

  William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

  Equality, Justice, Liberty

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• Let justice be done, though the heavens fall.

  William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

  Fall, Law, Justice

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• Decide promptly, but never give any reasons for your decisions. Your decisions may be right, but your reasons are sure to be wrong.

  William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

  Decisions You Make, Giving, Decisions Made

  "A Book About Lawyers", Vol. 1, by John Cordy Jeaffreson, 1867.

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• I will not avoid doing what I think is right, though it should draw on me the whole artillery that falsehood and malice can invent, or the credulity a deluded population can swallow.

  William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

  Thinking, Population, Should

  "The miscellaneous writings of Joseph Story ..., Vol. 3". Book by Joseph Story, C. C. Little and J. Brown, p. 211, 1852.

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• Uncertain justice by a verdict is much better than certain injustice.

  William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

  Justice, Uncertain, Verdict

  "Cases in the King's Bench" (1773), Hilary Term, 13 Geo. III, Lofft. 147 in "The Dictionary of Legal Quotations" by James William Norton-Kyshe, (p. 146), 1904.

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• Consider what you think justice requires, and decide accordingly. But never give your reasons; for your judgment will probably be right, but your reasons will certainly be wrong.

  William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

  Thinking, Giving, Justice

  Advice to a newly appointed colonial governor ignorant in the law, in John Lord Campbell 'The Lives of the Chief Justices of England' (1849) vol. 2, ch. 40

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• True popularity is not the popularity which is followed after, but the popularity which follows after.

  William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

  Recognition, Popularity

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• An estimated value is a precarious measure of justice, compared with the specific thing.

  William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

  Justice, Precarious, Values

  "Fisher v. Prince", 3 Burr. Part IV. 1365, 1762.

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• A dose of poison can do its work but once. A bad book can go on poisoning minds for generations.

  William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

  Book, Reading, Mind

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• Possession is nine-tenths of the law.

  William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

  Law, Nine, Possession

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• Rules of property ought to be generally known, and not to be left upon loose notes, which rather serve to confound principles, than to confirm them.

  William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

  Principles, Notes, Property

  "Goodtitle v. Duke of Chandos" (1760), 2 Burr. Part IV., p. 1076 in "The Dictionary of Legal Quotations" by James William Norton-Kyshe, (pp. 210-212), 1904.

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• There is no entering into the secret thoughts of a man's heart.

  William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

  Motivation, Heart, Men

  "The King v. Woodfall" (1774), Lofft. 782 in "The Dictionary of Legal Quotations" by James William Norton-Kyshe, (pp. 178-180), 1904.

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• I wish popularity, but it is that popularity which follows; not that which is run after. It is that popularity which, sooner or later, never fails to do justice to the pursuit of noble ends, by noble means.

  William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

  Running, Mean, Justice

  "Case of John Wilkes", 19 How. St. Tr. 1112, 1113; 8. C. 4 Burr. Part IV. 2562, 1763.

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• The expenses of the paperwork and court fees involved in pursuing the appeal through the courts were not too high. In fact, as I recall, removing prayer from U.S. public schools cost less than $20,000... no Christian organization filed a brief in support of our opponents.

  William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

  Christian, Religious, Prayer

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• It is iniquitous, unjust, and most impolitic to persecute for religion's sake. It is against natural religion, revealed religion, and sound policy.

  William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

  Sound, Unjust, Sake

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• Humanism or atheism is a wonderful philosophy of life as long as you are big, strong, and between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five. But watch out if you are in a lifeboat and there are others who are younger, bigger, or smarter.

  William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

  Strong, Atheist, Philosophy

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• There is no positive law: Many things are bad by that, which otherwise were not.

  William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

  Law

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• The law protects nothing in that very respect, in which it is, at the same time, in the eye of the law, a crime.

  William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

  Eye, Law, Crime

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• God help the patient.

  William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

  Humorous, Doctors, Medicine

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