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.

Possession is nine-tenths of the law.

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.

Let justice be done, though the heavens fall.

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.

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

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.