Mischief

He had a head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute any mischief.

— Mischief

It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.

— Mischief

In life it is difficult to say who do you the most mischief, enemies with the worst intentions, or friends with the best.

— Mischief

What plaguy mischief and mishapsDo dog him still with after claps!

— Mischief

Let them call it mischief:When it is past and prospered 'twill be virtue.

— Mischief

When to mischief mortals bend their will,How soon they find it instruments of ill.

— Mischief

Now let it work: Mischief, thou art afoot,Take thou what course thou wilt.

— Mischief

To mourn a mischief that is past and goneIs the next way to draw new mischief on.

— Mischief

O mischief, thou art swiftTo enter in the thoughts of desperate men!

— Mischief

Certainty is the mother of quiet, which is the end of the law, and tho' it falls out that some particular cases may light very hard, yet better that mischief than an inconvenience.

— Mischief

Certainty is the mother of repose, and therefore the common law aims at certainty.

— Mischief

The policy of the law of England, and indeed the true principles of all government, will rather suffer many private inconveniences, than introduce one public mischief.

— Mischief

It is a general rule of Judgment, that a mischief should rather be admitted than an inconvenience.

— Mischief

And the law says, better is a mischief than an inconvenience. By a mischief is meant, when one man or some few men suffer by the hardship of a law, which law is yet useful for the public. But an inconvenience is to have a public law disobeyed or broken, or an offence to go unpunished.

— Mischief

As the sun arising in the horizon shews not the figure so clear, as when it is beholden in the meridian; so by mixing many impertinences with the case in judgment, it hath been apprehended to be of a far tenderer consequence than indeed it is: yet tender and weighty it is.

— Mischief

It is impossible for the Court to foresee when a sentence begins how it will end, and, sometimes, mischief is done before we are sure that the sentence will conclude in an offensive manner.

— Mischief