Trial By Jury Quotes

• I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Anchors, Law

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1859). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence”, p.71

  90 Copy quote

  Show source

• Trial by jury is part of the bright constellation which leads to peace, liberty and safety.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Safety, Liberty, Trials

  8 Copy quote

• In suits at common law, trial by jury in civil cases is as essential to secure the liberty of the people as any one of the pre-existent rights of nature.

  James Madison

  Rights, Law, People

  25 Copy quote

• Trial by jury is the palladium of our liberties. I do not know what a palladium is, but I am sure it is a good thing!

  Mark Twain

  Liberty, Trials, Good Things

  13 Copy quote

• That in controversies respecting property, and in suits between man and man, the ancient trial by jury is preferable to any other, and ought to be held sacred.

  George Mason

  Men, Sacred, Suits

  "The Federal and State Constitutions Colonial Charters, and Other Organic Laws of the States, Territories, and Colonies Now or Heretofore Forming the United States of America" compiled and edited by Newton Thorpe, Washington, DC : Government Printing Office, 1909.

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• When you go into court you are putting your fate into the hands of twelve people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty.

  Norm Crosby

  Funny, Hilarious, Smart

  332 Copy quote

• The humorist who invented trial by jury played a colossal practical joke upon the world, but since we have the system we ought to try and respect it. A thing which is not thoroughly easy to do, when we reflect that by command of the law a criminal juror must be an intellectual vacuum, attached to a melting heart and perfectly macaronian bowels of compassion.

  Mark Twain

  Funny, Humorous, Heart

  Mark Twain (1992). “Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, and Essays, Volume 1: 1852-1890”, p.725, Library of America

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• Good-looking individuals are treated better than homely ones in virtually every social situation, from dating to trial by jury.

  Martha Beck

  Dating, Society, Looking For Love

  26 Copy quote

• The trial by jury is a trial by 'the country,' in contradistinction to a trial by the government. The jurors are drawn by lot from the mass of the people, for the very purpose of having all classes of minds and feelings, that prevail among the people at large, represented in the jury.

  Lysander Spooner

  Country, Government, Class

  Lysander Spooner (1971). “The Collected Works of Lysander Spooner: Legal writings”

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Trial by jury must be preserved. It is the best system ever invented for a free people in the world's history.

  John Henry Wigmore

  People, Trials, World

  7 Copy quote

• Trial by jury is a privilege of the highest and most beneficial nature [and] our most important guardian both of public and private liberty. The liberties of England cannot but subsist so long as this palladium remains sacred and inviolate, not only from all open attacks, ... but also from all secret machinations, which may sap and undermine it.

  William Blackstone

  Long, Secret, Important

  28 Copy quote

• We must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which are the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world and which through Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and the English common law find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence.

  Winston Churchill

  Men, Rights, Expression

  The Sinews of Peace, delivered 5 March 1946 Westminster College, Fulton Missouri

  125 Copy quote

  Show source

• The wisdom of our ages and the blood of our heroes has been devoted to the attainment of trial by jury. It should be the creed of our political faith.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Hero, Blood, Political

  4 Copy quote

• Trial by jury. Live wherever you can make a living. How could a government based on such principles fail?

  Stephen Ambrose

  Government, Principles, Trials

  16 Copy quote

• What many of those who oppose the use of juries in civil trials seem to ignore is that the founders of our Nation considered the right of trial by jury in civil cases an important bulwark against tyranny and corruption, a safeguard too precious to be left to the whim of the sovereign, or, it might be added, to that of the judiciary.

  William Rehnquist

  Law, Important, Use

  21 Copy quote

• Freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of person under protection of habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected, these principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, Age, Trials

  First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1801

  60 Copy quote

  Show source

• Trial by jury is a wise distribution of power which exceeds all other modes of trial.

  Edward Coke

  Wise, Distribution Of Power, Trials

  7 Copy quote

• Trial by jury is part of that bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Age, Gone, Trials

  5 Copy quote

• I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.

  Groucho Marx

  Funny, Marriage, Sarcastic

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  110 Copy quote

  Show source

• We have a Bill of Rights, we have trial by jury. We have a notion that you are - you're innocent until you're proven guilty. We have all these things.

  Joe Biden

  Rights, Trials, Bills

  Interview with Rachel Maddow, www.msnbc.com. February 18, 2016.

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think that it is high time that we remembered that we have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution. I think that it is high time that we remembered that the Constitution, as amended, speaks not only of the freedom of speech but also of trial by jury instead of trial by accusation.

  Margaret Chase Smith

  Thinking, Freedom Of Speech, Trials

  Declaration of Conscience, delivered 1 June 1950

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• You ought to be extremely cautious, watchful, jealous of your liberty; for instead of securing your rights, you may lose them forever.

  Patrick Henry

  Jealous, Rights, Forever

  Patrick Henry (2007). “Patrick Henry in his speeches and writings and in the words of his contemporaries”, Warwick House Publishing

  31 Copy quote

  Show source

• Loyalty is that for the lack of which your gang will shoot you without benefit of trial by jury.

  Robert Frost

  Loyalty, Trials, Benefits

  6 Copy quote

• There was not a member of the Constitutional Convention who had the least objection to what is contended for by the advocates for a Bill of Rights and trial by jury.

  George Washington

  Rights, Law, Trials

  George Washington, Jared Sparks (1847). “pt. III. Private letters from the time Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the Army to that of his inauguration as president of the United States: December, 1783-April, 1789”, p.357

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• The object of any tyrant would be to overthrow or diminish trial by jury, for it is the lamp that shows that freedom lives.

  Patrick Devlin, Baron Devlin

  Tyrants, Would Be, Lamps

  10 Copy quote