"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 HandYou cannot raise the standard against oppression, or leap into the breach to relieve injustice, and still keep an open mind to every disconcerting fact, or an open ear to the cold voice of doubt.
Learned HandWe shall succeed only so far as we continue to undertake โthe intolerable labor of thoughtโ โ that most distasteful of all our activities.
Learned HandIt 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 HandRight knows no boundaries, and justice no frontiers; the brotherhood of man is not a domestic institution.
Learned HandI 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