Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon

To enter into the hearts of men belongs to him who can explore the human heart.

I have heard that it was the perfection of the administration of criminal justice to take care that the punishment should come to few and the example to many.

If I were master of eloquence I would not make the decision of this cause a stage upon which I would display that eloquence. Those things which are very proper for advocates to do, become very improper for the Judge, who has nothing to do, …

No person is less disposed than I am to accommodate the law to the particular convenience of the case: but I am always glad when I find the strict law and the justice of the case going hand in hand together.

The interest of the public is never better advanced than when we can inculcate by our rules the advantage of acting honestly.

It is necessary for Courts of Justice to hold a strict hand over summary proceedings before magistrates, and I never will agree to relax any of the rules by which they have been bound. Their jurisdiction is of a limited nature, and they …

Justice requires that a party should be duly summoned and fully heard before he is condemned.

I have often thought since that there is sound sense in what was once said by the late Lord C. J. Eyre, that the sooner a bad precedent was gotten rid of, the better.

It is our duty to take care that persons in pursuing their own particular interests do not transgress those laws which were made for the benefit of the whole community.

We must judge of a man's motives from his overt acts.

The common law, though not to be found in the written records of the realm, yet has been long well known. It is coeval with civilised society itself, and was formed from time to time by the wisdom of man. Good sense did not come with the …

A Court of equity knows its own province.

If an infant commit an assault, or utter slander, God forbid that he should not be answerable for it in a Court of justice.

The learned counsel has very properly avoided all political discussions unconnected with the subject, and I shall follow his example. Courts of justice have nothing to do with them.

All Governments rest mainly on public opinion, and to that of his own subjects every wise Sovereign will look. The opinion of his subjects will force a Sovereign to do his duty, and by that opinion will he be exalted or depressed in the …

I have been reminded that I sit here as counsel for the defendant. I certainly do so, so far as to interpose between him and the counsel for the prosecution, and to see that no improper use of the law is made against him, and that no …

I can't look to contingencies.

Counsel are frequently induced, and they are justified in taking the most favourable view of their clients' case; and it is not fair to pass over any piece of evidence they find difficult to deal with, provided they cite, fairly and …

A man may publish anything which twelve of his countrymen think not blamable.

The liberty of the press is dear to England; the licentiousness of the press is odious to England: the liberty of it can never be so well protected as by beating down the licentiousness.

Proceedings at law are sufficiently expensive.

We ought not to decide hastily against the words of an Act of Parliament.

Notwithstanding all the care and anxiety of the persons who frame Acts of Parliament to guard against every event, it frequently turns out that certain cases were not foreseen.

Precedent goes in support of justice.