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.
BENJAMIN CARDOZOThe validity of a tax depends upon its nature, and not upon its name.
More Benjamin Cardozo Quotes
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The difference is no less real because it is of degree.
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The risk to be percieved defines the duty to be obeyed.
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I take judge-made law as one of the existing realities of life.
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Inaction without more is not tantamount to choice.
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Due process is a growth too sturdy to succumb to the infection of the least ingredient of error.
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There are vogues and fashions in jurisprudence as in literature and art and dress.
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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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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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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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We seek to find peace of mind in the word, the formula, the ritual. The hope is illusion.
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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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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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Fraud includes the pretense of knowledge when knowledge there is none.
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The great generalities of the constitution have a content and a significance that vary from age to age.
BENJAMIN CARDOZO