Learned Hand Quotes

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• Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes. Over and over again the Courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands.

  Learned Hand

  Money, Patriotic, Government

  141 Copy quote

• Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it ... 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 understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias.

  Learned Hand

  Freedom, Lying, Heart

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  120 Copy quote

• In america, there are two tax systems: one for the informed and one for the uninformed. Both are legal

  Learned Hand

  Two, America, Taxation

  58 Copy quote

• I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon law and upon courts. These are false hopes, believe me, these are false hopes. 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. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no courts to save it.

  Learned Hand

  Lying, Believe, Heart

  "The Spirit of Liberty" (speech), New York, N.Y., 21 May 1944

  85 Copy quote

• That community is already in the process of dissolution where each man begins to eye his neighbor as a possible enemy, where non-conformity with the accepted creed, political as well as religious, is a mark of disaffection; where denunciation, without specification or backing, takes the place of evidence; where orthodoxy chokes freedom of dissent; where faith in the eventual supremacy of reason has become so timid that we dare not enter our convictions in the open lists, to win or lose.

  Learned Hand

  Religious, Eye, Winning

  "A Plea for the Open Mind and Free Discussion" (speech), Albany, N.Y., 24 Oct. 1952

  55 Copy quote

• It is the daily; it is the small; it is the cumulative injuries of little people that we are here to protect....If we are able to keep our democracy, there must be once commandment: THOU SHALT NOT RATION JUSTICE.

  Learned Hand

  People, Justice, Democracy

  63 Copy quote

• 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.

  Learned Hand

  Men, Savages, Checks

  Brainerd Currie, Learned Hand, United States. Supreme Court (1953). “The Supreme Court: an NBC radio discussion”

  26 Copy quote

• The hand that rules the press, the radio, the screen and the far-spread magazine, rules the country.

  Learned Hand

  Country, Media, Hands

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

  51 Copy quote

• 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”

  4 Copy quote

• The language of the law must not be foreign to the ears of those who are to obey it.

  Learned Hand

  Law, Political, Ears

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

  37 Copy quote

• "I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken." I should like to have that written over the portals of every church, every school, and every courthouse, and, may I say, of every legislative body in the United States. I should like to have every court begin, "I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that we may be mistaken."

  Learned Hand

  School, Thinking, Church

  "Morals in Public Life". Book by Learned Hand, 1951.

  53 Copy quote

• 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.

  Learned Hand

  Running, Past, Data

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

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  Change, Past, Choices

  Harry Kalven, Learned Hand (1967). “The Supreme Court as legislator: the contribution of an independent judiciary to civilization : an address”

  63 Copy quote

• 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.

  Learned Hand

  Freedom, Men, Mind

  "The Spirit of Liberty" (speech), New York, N.Y., 21 May 1944

  38 Copy quote

• 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.

  Learned Hand

  Love, Freedom, Hate

  "The Spirit of Liberty" (speech), New York, N.Y., 21 May 1944

  21 Copy quote

• Words are chameleons, which reflect the color of their environment.

  Learned Hand

  Reflection, Color, Environment

  72 Copy quote

• If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: thou shalt not ration justice.

  Learned Hand

  Justice, Political, Democracy

  "Thou Shalt Not Ration Justice" (1951)

  35 Copy quote

• The successful competitor, having been urged to compete, must not be turned upon when he wins.

  Learned Hand

  Successful, Winning, Competition

  "The art and craft of judging: the decisions of Judge Learned Hand".

  5 Copy quote

• 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".

  4 Copy quote

• Justice is the tolerable accommodation of the conflicting interests of society, and I don't believe there is any royal road to attain such accommodation concretely.

  Learned Hand

  Believe, Law Courts, Justice

  62 Copy quote

• There is no surer way to misread any document than to read it literally. As nearly as we can, we must put ourselves in the place of those who uttered the words, and try to divine how they would have dealt with the unforeseen situation; and, although their words are by far the most decisive evidence of what they would have done, they are by no means final.

  Learned Hand

  Mean, Trying, Way

  "Giuseppe v. Walling". Judicial opinion, 1944.

  12 Copy quote

• In the end it is worse to suppress dissent than to run the risk of heresy.

  Learned Hand

  Running, Risk, Ends

  Oliver Wendell Holmes lecture at Harvard in 1958. "The Rhetoric of Our Times" by J. Jeffery Auer, p. 124, 1969.

  44 Copy quote

• The mutual confidence on which all else depends can be maintained only by an open mind and a brave reliance upon free discussion.

  Learned Hand

  Brave, Mind, Discussion

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

  19 Copy quote

• 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

  Law, Ears, Aliens

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

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  Learned Hand

  Rely Upon, Liberty, Body

  Learned Hand, Elizabethan Club (Yale University) (1941). “Liberty”

  30 Copy quote

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