That is the fourth course, which in future I trust the right hon. Gentleman (Sir R. Peel) will not forget. The right hon. Gentleman tells us to go back to precedents; with him a great measure is always founded on a small precedent. He traces the steam-engine always back to the tea-kettle. His precedents are generally tea-kettle precedents.
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Speech in the House of Commons (11 April 1845).Benjamin Disraeli
» Benjamin Disraeli - all quotes »
I entirely differ with the Government as to the value of precedents. In this case, as in others, precedents are not mere dusty phrases, which do not substantially affect the question before us. A precedent embalms a principle.
Benjamin Disraeli
What is today supported by precedents will hereafter become a precedent.
Tacitus
Precedents deliberately established by wise men are entitled to great weight. They are evidence of truth, but only evidence...But a solitary precedent...which has never been reexamined, cannot be conclusive.
Henry Clay
Jevons saw the kettle boil and cried out with the delighted voice of a child; Marshall too had seen the kettle boil and sat down silently to build an engine.
John Maynard Keynes
We must follow the old authorities and precedents in criminal matters.
John Coleridge
Disraeli, Benjamin
Dix, Otto
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