Edward Coke

“The gladsome light of jurisprudence.”

“If I am asked a question of common law, I should be an ass to answer it without looking at my books.”

“For a man's house is his castle, et domus sua cuique est tutissimum refugium [and each man's home is his safest refuge].”

“Precedent must be followed only so far as it marks the path of justice.”

“How long soever it hath continued, if it be against reason, it is of no force in law.”

“The King is under no man, but under God and the law.”

“They [corporations] cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed, nor excommunicated, for they have no souls.”

“The law is the safest helmet.”

“Magna Charta is such a fellow, that he will have no sovereign.”

“Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reason.”

“Law... is the perfection of reason.”