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 CARDOZOIn 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.
More Benjamin Cardozo Quotes
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Method is much, technique is much, but inspiration is even more.
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Freedom of expression is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom.
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Law never is, but is always about to be.
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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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Membership in the bar is a privilege burdened with conditions.
BENJAMIN CARDOZO -
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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Every human being of adult years and sound mind has a legal right to determine what shall be done with his own body.
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The heroic hours of life do not announce their presence by drum and trumpet.
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There are vogues and fashions in jurisprudence as in literature and art and dress.
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The Constitution was framed upon the theory that the peoples of the several states must sink or swim together, and that in the long run prosperity and salvation are in union and not division.
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Rest and motion, unrelieved and unchecked, are equally destructive.
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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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The difference is no less real because it is of degree.
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Code is followed by commentary, and commentary by revision, and thus the task is never done.
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Justice is not to be taken by storm. She is to be wooed by slow advances.
BENJAMIN CARDOZO