Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon

A plaintiff who comes into a Court of justice must show that he is in a condition to maintain his action.

Whatever might have been my opinion, had this been a new case, I must hold myself bound by decided cases.

Some modern cases have in my opinion gone too far.

Apprentices and servants are characters perfectly distinct: the one receives instruction, the other a stipulated price for his labour.

Sitting in a Court of law, I can receive no evidence but what comes under the sanction of an oath.

I should be extremely sorry to find that in a fictitious proceeding, instituted for the more easy attaining of justice, different rules were to obtain in the different Courts.

I take it that the judgment is an essential point in every conviction, let the punishment be fixed or not.

A conviction is in the nature of a verdict and judgment, and therefore it must be precise and certain.

It is impossible for the Court to foresee when a sentence begins how it will end, and, sometimes, mischief is done before we are sure that the sentence will conclude in an offensive manner.

If people with the very best intentions carry on prosecutions that are oppressive, the end may not always perhaps sanctify the means.

I do not know how far I ought to sit here and suffer a gentleman at the bar to bring forward parts of the Bible in this way. It is for you, gentlemen of the jury, to say whether you wish to hear them read.

Those regulations that are adapted to the common race of men are the best.

Two universities have been founded in this country, amply endowed and furnished with professors in the different sciences; and I should be sorry that those who have been educated at either of them should undervalue the benefits of such an …

That corporations are the creatures of the Crown must be universally admitted.

The power of free discussion is the right of every subject of this country. It is a right to the fair exercise of which we are indebted more than to any other that was ever claimed by Englishmen. All the blessings we at present enjoy might …

The discussion which was made by Luther, Melancthon, and the other persons who preceded the Reformation, opened the eyes or the public; and they got rid of the delusions which had been spread by the Pope of Rome, and emancipated mankind …

We are all desirous to sit as long as we can, but necessity justifies that which it compels; the strength of man is not adequate to this. Lord Mansfield, as little inclined to give way as any man, did give way at a certain hour in the case …

Concessions made for the purpose of settling the business for which the action is brought, cannot be given in evidence; but facts admitted I have always received.

We must not, by any whimsical conceits supposed to be adapted to the altering fashions of the times, overturn the established law of the land: it descended to us as a sacred charge, and it is our duty to preserve it.

Courts of equity make their decrees so as to arrive at the justice of the case without violating the rules of law.

A Court of equity can mould interests differently from a Court of law; and can give relief in cases where a Court of law cannot.

It is sometimes difficult to get rid of first impressions.

It is of great importance that the laws by which the contracts of so numerous and so useful a body of men as the sailors are supposed to be guided, should not be overturned.

The legislature have anxiously provided for those most useful and deserving body of men, the seamen and marines of this country.