The great ideals of liberty and equality are preserved against the assaults of opportunism, the expediency of the passing hour, the erosion of small encroachments, the scorn and derision of those who have no patience with general principles.
BENJAMIN CARDOZOThe great tides and currents which engulf the rest of men do not turn aside in their course and pass the judges by.
More Benjamin Cardozo Quotes
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History or custom or social utility or some compelling sense of justice or sometimes perhaps a semi-intuitive apprehension of the pervading spirit of our law must come to the rescue of the anxious judge and tell him where to go.
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Inaction without more is not tantamount to choice.
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I take judge-made law as one of the existing realities of life.
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Law never is, but is always about to be.
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We seek to find peace of mind in the word, the formula, the ritual. The hope is illusion.
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Method is much, technique is much, but inspiration is even more.
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History, in illuminating the past, illuminates the present, and in illuminating the present, illuminates the future.
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In the end the great truth will have been learned that the quest is greater than what is sought, the effort finer that the prize (or rather, that the effort is the prize), the victory cheap and hollow were it not for the rigor of the game.
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No judicial system could do society’s work if each issue had to be decided afresh in every case which raised it.
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The great tides and currents which engulf the rest of men do not turn aside in their course and pass the judges by.
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Fraud includes the pretense of knowledge when knowledge there is none.
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Not honesty alone, but the punctilio of an honor the most sensitive, is then the standard of behavior.
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In truth, I am nothing but a plodding mediocrity – please observe, a plodding mediocrity – for a mere mediocrity does not go very far, but a plodding one gets quite a distance. There is joy in that success, and a distinction can come from courage, fidelity and industry.
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The final cause of law is the welfare of society.
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Consequences cannot alter statutes, but may help to fix their meaning.
BENJAMIN CARDOZO