Learned Hand Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

• A self-made man may prefer a self-made name.

  Learned Hand

  Men, Self, Names

  On Samuel Goldfish changing his name to Samuel Goldwyn, in Bosley Crowther 'Lion's Share' (1957) ch. 7

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• We shall succeed only so far as we continue to undertake “the intolerable labor of thought” — that most distasteful of all our activities.

  Learned Hand

  Ideas, Political, Succeed

  "The Spirit of Liberty: Papers and Addresses".

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• The judge's authority depends upon the assumption that he speaks with the mouth of others. That is to say, the momentum of his utterances must be greater than any which his personal reputation and character can command, if it is to do the work assigned to it - if it is to stand against the passionate resentments arising out of the interests he must frustrate - for while a judge must discover some composition with the dominant trends of his times, he must preserve his authority by cloaking himself in the majesty of an overshadowing past.

  Learned Hand

  Character, Past, Judging

  The New York Times, October 06, 1963.

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• There is nothing sinister in so arranging one's affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible.

  Learned Hand

  Affair, Lows, Sinister

  Learned Hand (1968). “The art and craft of judging: the decisions of Judge 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.

  Learned Hand

  Facts, Kind, Legislation

  Letter to Louis D. Brandeis, January 22, 1919.

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• When I say that a thing is true, I mean that I cannot help believing it... But...I do not venture to assume that my inabilities in the way of thought are inabilities of the universe. I therefore define truth as the system of my limitations, and leave absolute truth for those who are better equipped.

  Learned Hand

  Believe, Mean, Inability

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• Liberty is so much latitude as the powerful choose to accord to the weak.

  Learned Hand

  Powerful, Liberty, Weak

  Learned Hand (1959). “The Spirit of Liberty: Papers and Addresses”

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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.

  Learned Hand

  Real, Winning, Done

  Learned Hand (1959). “The Spirit of Liberty: Papers and Addresses”

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• Tyranny is tyranny, no matter what its form; the free man will resist it if his courage serves.

  Learned Hand

  Men, Matter, Form

  Learned Hand (1959). “The Spirit of Liberty: Papers and Addresses”

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• Life is not a thing of knowing only--nay, mere knowledge has properly no place at all save as it becomes the handmaiden of feeling and emotions.

  Learned Hand

  Knowledge, Knowing, Feelings

  Learned Hand (1959). “The Spirit of Liberty: Papers and Addresses”

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• 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, Men, Law

  Learned Hand (1968). “The art and craft of judging: the decisions of Judge Learned Hand”

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• Every smallest step of modern industry depends upon a cooperation whose maintenance and regulation is the very stuff of law.

  Learned Hand

  Law, Maintenance, Regulation

  Learned Hand (1959). “The Spirit of Liberty: Papers and Addresses”

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• It is often hard to secure unanimity about the borders of legislative power, but that is much easier than to decide how far a particular adjustment diverges from what the judges deem tolerable. On such issues experience has over and over again shown the difficulty of securing unanimity. This is disastrous because disunity cancels the impact of monolithic solidarity on which the authority of a bench of judges so largely depends.

  Learned Hand

  Issues, Impact, Judging

  "The Bill Of Rights". Book by Learned Hand, p. 72, 1958.

  20 Copy quote

• The profession of the law of which he [a judge] is a part is charged with the articulation and final incidence of the successive efforts towards justice; it must feel the circulation of the communal blood or it will wither and drop off, a useless member.

  Learned Hand

  Blood, Law, Justice

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• It was not the violence of our enemies [in World War I] that would undo us, I thought, but our own spiritual weakness, the shallowness of our convictions.

  Learned Hand

  Spiritual, War, Enemy

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• Conservative political opinion in America cleaves to the tradition of the judge as passive interpreter, believing that his absolute loyalty to authoritative law is the price of his immunity from political pressure and of the security of his tenure.

  Learned Hand

  Loyalty, Believe, Political Opinions

  Learned Hand (1959). “The Spirit of Liberty: Papers and Addresses”

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• I shall ask no more than that you agree with Dean Inge that even though counting heads is not an ideal way to govern, at least it is better than breaking them.

  Learned Hand

  Agreement, Way, Dean

  Learned Hand (1959). “The Spirit of Liberty: Papers and Addresses”

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• I had rather take my chance that some traitors will escape detection than spread abroad a spirit of general suspicion and distrust, which accepts rumor and gossip in place of undismayed and unintimidated inquiry.

  Learned Hand

  Gossip, Rumor, Inquiry

  Learned Hand (1959). “The Spirit of Liberty: Papers and Addresses”

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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.

  Learned Hand

  Survival, World, Social

  Learned Hand (1959). “The Spirit of Liberty: Papers and Addresses”

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• 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, Missing, Would Be

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• The public official must pick his way nicely, must learn to placate though not to yield too much, to have the art of honeyed words but not to seem neutral, and above all to keep constantly audible, visible, likable, even kissable.

  Learned Hand

  Art, Yield, Too Much

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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.

  Learned Hand

  Use, Faces, Reputation

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• It is enough that we set out to mold the motley stuff of life into some form of our own choosing; when we do, the performance is itself the wage.

  Learned Hand

  Life, Success, Mold

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• Since we are men, we will play the part of Man.

  Learned Hand

  Men, Play

  Learned Hand (1955). “A fanfare for Prometheus”

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• A government of laws without men is as visionary as a government of men without laws.

  Learned Hand

  Men, Government, Law

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