Patrick Devlin

“It is not possible to set theoretical limits to the power of the State to legislate against immorality.”

“There must be a real and tolerable balance between the liberty of the subject and the special needs of the community.”

“The suppression of vice is as much the law's business as the suppression of subversive activities.”

“The criminal law is not a statement of how people ought to behave; it is a statement of what will happen to them if they do not behave.”

“The law, both civil and criminal, is bound to be concerned with morality.”

“An established morality is as necessary as good government to the welfare of society.”

“Societies disintegrate from within more frequently than they are broken up by external pressures.”

“Trial by jury is more than an instrument of justice and more than one wheel of the constitution: it is the lamp that shows that freedom lives.”

“Without shared ideas on politics, morals, and ethics, no society can exist.”

“What makes a society of individuals is a community of ideas... these latter ideas are its morals.”

“Not everything is to be tolerated. Whether a particular practice is tolerated or not is something for society to decide.”