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We accept the verdict of the past until the need for change cries out loudly enough to force upon us a choice between the comforts of inertia and the irksomeness of action.

Learned Hand

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Learned Hand
Age: 89 †
Born: 1872
Born: January 27
Died: 1961
Died: August 18
Judge
Lawyer
Philosopher
Albany
New York
Billings Learned Hand
Force
Cries
Action
Cry
Past
Accept
Change
Comfort
Need
Choice
Loudly
Enough
Accepting
Verdict
Needs
Choices
Comforts
Upon
Inertia

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Reputation, like a face, is the symbol of its possessor and creator, and another can use it only as a mask.
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As soon as we cease to pry about at random, we shall come to rely upon accredited bodies of authoritative dogma and as soon as we come to rely upon accredited bodies of authoritative dogma, not only are the days of our liberty over, but we have lost the password that has hitherto opened to us the gates of success as well.
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Words are not pebbles in alien juxtaposition.
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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.
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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.
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Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it.
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A government of laws without men is as visionary as a government of men without laws.
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There is no surer way to misread any document than to read it literally.
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The spirit of liberty is the spirit that is not quite sure it is right.
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The hand that rules the press, the radio, the screen and the far-spread magazine, rules the country.
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Since we are men, we will play the part of Man.
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Skepticism is my only gospel, but I don't want to make a dogma out of it.
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Liberty is so much latitude as the powerful choose to accord to the weak.
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No doubt one may quote history to support any cause, as the devil quotes the scripture.
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If the prosecution of crime is to be conducted with so little regard for that protection which centuries of English law have given to the individual, we are indeed at the dawn of a new era and much that we have deemed vital to our liberties, is a delusion.
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The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understands the minds of other men and women.
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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.
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The language of the law must not be foreign to the ears of those who are to obey it.
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In the end it is worse to suppress dissent than to run the risk of heresy.
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