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No doubt one may quote history to support any cause, as the devil quotes scripture but modern history is not a very satisfactory side-arm in political polemics it grows less and less so.

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
Political
Modern
Satisfactory
May
Doubt
Quotes
Sides
Quote
Grows
Scripture
Causes
Devil
Support
Arms
Less
Cause
History
Side
Polemics

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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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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 apathy of the modern voter is the confusion of the modern reformer.
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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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Seldom, if ever, does wisdom come, shall we punish it if it comes late?
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Liberty is so much latitude as the powerful choose to accord to the weak.
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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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The condition of our survival in any but the meagerest existence is our willingness to accommodate ourselves to the conflicting interests of others, to learn to live in a social world.
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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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There is no surer way to misread any document than to read it literally.
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For, when all is said, as my friend George Rublee likes to put it, the only success is to be a success as a person and it is still not too late for that.
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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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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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There is nothing sinister in so arranging one's affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible.
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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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We may win when we lose, if we have done what we can for by so doing we have made real at least some part of that finished product in whose fabrication we are most concerned: ourselves.
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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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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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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.
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Since we are men, we will play the part of Man.
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