Quotes from Learned Hand

Words are not pebbles in alien juxtaposition.

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

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.

The use of history is to tell us what we are, for at our birth we are nearly empty vessels and we become what our tradition pours into us.

There is no surer way to misread any document than to read it literally.

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.

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.

Life is made up of constant calls to action, and we seldom have time for more than hastily contrived answers.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The art of publicity is a black art; but it has come to stay, and every year adds to its potency.

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

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

Thou shalt not ration justice.

If we are to keep democracy, there must be a commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.

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.

We prate of freedom; we are in deadly fear of life, as much of our own American scene betrays.

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

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.

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

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.

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.