Those rights, then, which God and nature have established, and are therefore called natural rights, such as life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by the municipal laws to be inviolate. On the contrary, no human legislature has power to abridge or destroy them, unless the owner shall himself commit some act that amounts to a forfeiture.
— Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England [1765]
- Sir William Blackstone Short Biography
Royal Berkshire History - Blackstone in America
by Greg Bailey
Early America Review - Commentaries on the Laws of England
by Sir William Blackstone
Lonang Institute