Inaction without more is not tantamount to choice. Benjamin Cardozo More Quotes by Benjamin Cardozo More Quotes From Benjamin Cardozo The great tides and currents which engulf the rest of men do not turn aside in their course and pass the judges by. Benjamin Cardozo tides judging men There is in each of us a stream of tendency, whether you choose to call it philosophy or not, which gives coherence and direction to thought and action. Judges cannot escape that current any more than other mortals. Benjamin Cardozo judging giving philosophy Consequences cannot alter statutes, but may help to fix their meaning. Benjamin Cardozo statutes may helping What has once been settled by a precedent will not be unsettled overnight, for certainty and uniformity are gains not lightly sacrificed. Above all is this true when honest men have shaped their conduct on the faith of the pronouncement. Benjamin Cardozo gains honesty men Rest and motion, unrelieved and unchecked, are equally destructive. Benjamin Cardozo destructive No judicial system could do society's work if each issue had to be decided afresh in every case which raised it. Benjamin Cardozo judicial Code is followed by commentary, and commentary by revision, and thus the task is never done. Benjamin Cardozo revision tasks done The risk to be percieved defines the duty to be obeyed. Benjamin Cardozo risk duty Expediency may tip the scales when arguments are nicely balanced. Benjamin Cardozo scales argument may In our worship of certainty we must distinguish between the sound certainty and the sham, between what is gold and what is tinsel; and then, when certainty is attained, we must remember that it is not the only good; that we can buy it at too high a price; that there is danger in perpetual quiescence as well as in perpetual motion; and that a compromise must be found in a principle of growth. Benjamin Cardozo growth gold sound With traps and obstacles and hazards confronting us on every hand, only blindness or indifference will fail to turn in all humility, for guidance or for warning, to the study of examples. Benjamin Cardozo humility example hands The repetition of a catchword can hold analysis in fetters for fifty years or more. Benjamin Cardozo analysis fifty years Membership in the bar is a privilege burdened with conditions. Benjamin Cardozo membership privilege bars Not honesty alone, but the punctilio of an honor the most sensitive, is then the standard of behavior. Benjamin Cardozo sensitive honesty honor I take judge-made law as one of the existing realities of life. Benjamin Cardozo judging law reality Opinion has a significance proportioned to the sources that sustain it. Benjamin Cardozo significance source opinion Every human being of adult years and sound mind has a legal right to determine what shall be done with his own body. Benjamin Cardozo mind dark years The prophet and the martyr do not see the hooting throng. Their eyes are fixed on the eternities. Benjamin Cardozo prophet eternity eye History or custom or social utility or some compelling sense of justice or sometimes perhaps a semi-intuitive apprehension of the pervading spirit of our law must come to the rescue of the anxious judge and tell him where to go. Benjamin Cardozo judging law justice The great generalities of the constitution have a content and a significance that vary from age to age. Benjamin Cardozo significance constitution age
