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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.

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
Generations
Realize
Divination
Realizing
Contrived
Wise
Passes
Father
Fathers
Come
Passed
Time
Powers
Generation

More quotes by Learned Hand

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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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The mutual confidence on which all else depends can be maintained only by an open mind and a brave reliance upon free discussion.
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Words are not pebbles in alien juxtaposition.
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Every smallest step of modern industry depends upon a cooperation whose maintenance and regulation is the very stuff of law.
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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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Skepticism is my only gospel, but I don't want to make a dogma out of it.
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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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Heretics have been hated from the beginning of recorded time they have been ostracized, exiled, tortured, maimed, and butchered but it has generally proved impossible to smother them and when it has not, the society that has succeeded has always declined.
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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.
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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.
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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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Life is made up of a series of judgments on insufficient data, and if we waited to run down all our doubts, it would flow past us.
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There is no surer way to misread any document than to read it literally.
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Our common law is the stock instance of a combination of custom and its successive adaptations.
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The mid-day sun is too much for most eyes one is dazzled even with its reflection. Be careful that too broad and high an aim does not paralyze your effort and clog your springs of action.
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The public needs the equivalent of Chevrolets as well as Cadillacs.
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A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few.
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If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: thou shalt not ration justice.
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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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The lawyer must either learn to live more capaciously or be content to find himself continuously less trusted, more circumscribed, till he becomes hardly more important than a minor administrator, confined to a monotonous round of record and routine, without dignity, inspiration, or respect.
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