William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, SL, PC (2 March 1705 – 20 March 1793), better known as Lord Mansfield, was a British barrister, politician and judge noted for his reform of English law. He served as a Member of Parliament for Boroughbridge, where he was noted for his "great powers of eloquence" and described as "beyond comparison the best speaker" in the House of Commons. He thereafter became Attorney General, and then Lord Chief Justice of England.

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• A man wants no protection when his conduct is strictly right.
  • Bird v. Gunston (1785), 3 Doug. 275.

• The last end that can happen to any man, never comes too soon, if he falls in support of the law and liberty of his country: for liberty is synonymous to law and government.
  • Rex v. Wilkes (1769), 4 Burr. Part IV., p. 2563.

• An estimated value is a precarious measure of justice, compared with the specific thing.
  • Fisher v. Prince (1762), 3 Burr. Part IV. 1365.

• Tut, man, decide promptly, but never give any reasons for your decisions. Your decisions may be right, but your reasons are sure to be wrong.
  • When asked by an army officer, appointed governor of a west Indies island and who had no experience in law, how to apply the law.
  • Quoted by John Cordy Jeaffreson in A Book About Lawyers, Volume 1 (1867).