Learned Hand Quotes

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. 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

What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. 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; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned, but has never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest.

~ Learned Hand

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 further inertia and the irksomeness of action.

~ Learned Hand

The aim of law is the maximum gratification of the nervous system of man.

~ Learned Hand

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.

~ Learned Hand

We shall succeed only so far as we continue that most distasteful of all activity the intolerable labour of thought.

~ Learned Hand

Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.

~ Learned Hand

It lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it. While it lies there, it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it.

~ Learned Hand

No doubt one may quote history to support any cause, as the devil quotes scripture.

~ Learned Hand