Life in a great society, or for that matter in a small, is a web of tangled relations of all sorts, whose adjustment so that it may be endurable is an extraordinarily troublesome matter. Learned Hand More Quotes by Learned Hand More Quotes From Learned Hand A self-made man may prefer a self-made name. Learned Hand self names men Liberty is so much latitude as the powerful choose to accord to the weak. Learned Hand liberty powerful weak Each one of us must in the end choose for himself how far he would like to leave our collective fate to the wayward vagaries of popular assemblies For myself it would be most irksome to be ruled by a bevy of Platonic Guardians, even if I knew how to choose them, which I assuredly do not I should miss the stimulus of living in a society where I have, at least theoretically, some part in the direction of public affairs. Learned Hand fate would-be missing No doubt one may quote history to support any cause, as the devil quotes the scripture. Learned Hand devil support doubt The successful competitor, having been urged to compete, must not be turned upon when he wins. Learned Hand competition successful winning You cannot raise the standard against oppression, or leap into the breach to relieve injustice, and still keep an open mind to every disconcerting fact, or an open ear to the cold voice of doubt. Learned Hand voice doubt mind The spirit of liberty is the spirit of him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned ... . Learned Hand liberty two years How long shall we blunder along without the aid of unpartisan and authoritative scientific assistance in the administration of justice, no one knows; but all fair persons not conventionalized by provincial legal habits of mind ought, I should think, unite to effect some change. Learned Hand justice long thinking Words are not pebbles in alien juxtaposition. Learned Hand pebbles juxtaposition aliens If a community decides that some conduct is prejudicial to itself, and so decides by numbers sufficient to impose its will upon dissenters, I know of no principle which can stay its hand. Learned Hand community numbers hands The public needs the equivalent of Chevrolets as well as Cadillacs. Learned Hand chevrolet cadillacs needs All discussion, all debate, all dissidence tends to question and in consequence, to upset existing convictions; that is precisely its purpose and its justification. Learned Hand upset atheism purpose There is something monstrous in commands couched in invented and unfamiliar language; an alien master is the worst of all. The language of the law must not be foreign to the ears of those who are to obey it. Learned Hand aliens law ears The fathers who contrived and passed the Consititution were wise in their generation; as time passes, we come more and more to realize their powers of divination. Learned Hand generations wise father Political agitation, by the passions it arouses or the convictions it engenders, may in fact stimulate men to the violation of the law. Detestation of existing policies is easily transformed into forcible resistance of the authority which puts them in execution, and it would be folly to disregard the causal relation between the two. Yet to assimilate agitation, legitimate as such, with direct incitement to violent resistance, is to disregard the tolerance of all methods of political agitation which in normal times is a safeguard of free government. Learned Hand passion law men It is still in the lap of the gods whether a society can succeed which is based on "civil liberties and human rights" conceived as I have tried to describe them; but of one thing at least we may be sure: the alternatives that have so far appeared have been immeasurably worse. Learned Hand alternatives liberty rights Reputation, like a face, is the symbol of its possessor and creator, and another can use it only as a mask. Learned Hand reputation use faces We recently had a referendum in New York about extending the forest preserve. The city voted for it by a large majority; yet as I walk the streets I do not see afforestation written with conviction on the harried faces of my fellow citizens. Learned Hand cities new-york tree We lose the forest for the trees, forgetting, even so far as we think at all, that we are trustees for those who come after us, squandering the patrimony which we have received. Learned Hand forests tree thinking It is of course true that any kind of judicial legislation is objectionable on the score of the limited interests which a Court can represent, yet there are wrongs which in fact legislatures cannot be brought to take an interest in, at least not until the Courts have acted. Learned Hand legislation kind facts
