Law never is, but is always about to be.
BENJAMIN CARDOZOHistory 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.
More Benjamin Cardozo Quotes
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The difference is no less real because it is of degree.
BENJAMIN CARDOZO -
Justice is not to be taken by storm. She is to be wooed by slow advances.
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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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Freedom of expression is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom.
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The judge is not the knight-errant, roaming at will in pursuit of his own ideal of beauty or of goodness.
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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 risk to be percieved defines the duty to be obeyed.
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There is in each of us a stream of tendency, whether you choose to call it philosophy or not, which gives coherence and direction to thought and action. Judges cannot escape that current any more than other mortals.
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Code is followed by commentary, and commentary by revision, and thus the task is never done.
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Membership in the bar is a privilege burdened with conditions.
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There are vogues and fashions in jurisprudence as in literature and art and dress.
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Justice, though due to the accused, is due the accuser also. The concept of fairness cannot be strained till it is narrowed to a filament. We are to keep our balance true.
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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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The constant assumption runs throughout the law that the natural and spontaneous evolutions of habit fix the limits of right and wrong.
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We seek to find peace of mind in the word, the formula, the ritual. The hope is illusion.
BENJAMIN CARDOZO