The heroic hours of life do not announce their presence by drum and trumpet.
BENJAMIN CARDOZOHistory, in illuminating the past, illuminates the present, and in illuminating the present, illuminates the future.
More Benjamin Cardozo Quotes
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Freedom of expression is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom.
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Membership in the bar is a privilege burdened with conditions.
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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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There are vogues and fashions in jurisprudence as in literature and art and dress.
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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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Consequences cannot alter statutes, but may help to fix their meaning.
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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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Code is followed by commentary, and commentary by revision, and thus the task is never done.
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Opinion has a significance proportioned to the sources that sustain it.
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The final cause of law is the welfare of society.
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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 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.
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Method is much, technique is much, but inspiration is even more.
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Rest and motion, unrelieved and unchecked, are equally destructive.
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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.
BENJAMIN CARDOZO








