Herein indeed consists the excellence of the English government, that all parts of it form a mutual check upon each other.

The third absolute right, inherent in every Englishman, is that of . . . the sacred and inviolable rights of private property.

Men was formed for society, and is neither capable of living alone, nor has the courage to do it.

There is nothing which so generally strikes the imagination and engages the affections of mankind, as the right of property.

The liberty of the press is indeed essential to the nature of a free state: but this consists in laying no previous restraints upon publications, and not in freedom from censure for criminal matter when published. Every freeman has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public: to forbid this, is to destroy the freedom of the press: but if he publishes what is improper, mischievous, or illegal, he must take the consequence of his own temerity.

Punishments of unreasonable severity, especially where indiscriminately afflicted, have less effect in preventing crimes, and amending the manners of a people, than such as are more merciful in general, yet properly intermixed with due distinctions of severity.

The most universal and effectual way of discovering the true meaning of law, when the words are dubious, is by considering the reason and spirit of it; or the cause which moved the legislator to enact it. for when this reason ceased, the law itself ought likewise to cease with it.