God forbid that the rights of the innocent should be lost and destroyed by the offence of individuals. - John Eardley Wilmot

You shall not stipulate for iniquity. All writers upon our law agree in this, no polluted hand shall touch the pure fountains of justice.

The statute law is the will of the legislature in writing; the common law is nothing else but statutes worn out by time; all our law began by consent of the legislature, and whether it is now law by usage or writing, it is the same thing.

I am not for stirring a single pebble of the common law.