Method is much, technique is much, but inspiration is even more.
BENJAMIN CARDOZOMethod is much, technique is much, but inspiration is even more.
BENJAMIN CARDOZORest and motion, unrelieved and unchecked, are equally destructive.
BENJAMIN CARDOZOThe judge is not the knight-errant, roaming at will in pursuit of his own ideal of beauty or of goodness.
BENJAMIN CARDOZOWhat has once been settled by a precedent will not be unsettled overnight, for certainty and uniformity are gains not lightly sacrificed. Above all is this true when honest men have shaped their conduct on the faith of the pronouncement.
BENJAMIN CARDOZOConsequences cannot alter statutes, but may help to fix their meaning.
BENJAMIN CARDOZOWith traps and obstacles and hazards confronting us on every hand, only blindness or indifference will fail to turn in all humility, for guidance or for warning, to the study of examples.
BENJAMIN CARDOZOCode is followed by commentary, and commentary by revision, and thus the task is never done.
BENJAMIN CARDOZOThe risk to be percieved defines the duty to be obeyed.
BENJAMIN CARDOZOThe great generalities of the constitution have a content and a significance that vary from age to age.
BENJAMIN CARDOZOFraud includes the pretense of knowledge when knowledge there is none.
BENJAMIN CARDOZOThe difference is no less real because it is of degree.
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.
BENJAMIN CARDOZODue process is a growth too sturdy to succumb to the infection of the least ingredient of error.
BENJAMIN CARDOZOThere are vogues and fashions in jurisprudence as in literature and art and dress.
BENJAMIN CARDOZOMembership in the bar is a privilege burdened with conditions.
BENJAMIN CARDOZOWe seek to find peace of mind in the word, the formula, the ritual. The hope is illusion.
BENJAMIN CARDOZO