American - Judge | May 24, 1870 - July 9, 1938
I own that it is a good deal of a mystery to me how judges, of all persons in the world, should put their faith in dicta. A brief experience on the bench was enough to reveal to me all sorts of cracks and crevices and loopholes in my own opinions when picked up a few months after delivery and reread with due contrition.
Benjamin N. Cardozo
GoodFaithExperienceMeWorld
The rules and principles of case law have never been treated as final truths but as working hypotheses, continually retested in those great laboratories of the law, the courts of justice. Every new case is an experiment, and if the accepted rule which seems applicable yields a result which is felt to be unjust, the rule is reconsidered.
GreatJusticeLawResultRulesNew
Freedom of expression is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom.
FreedomExpressionIndispensableForm
The prophet and the martyr do not see the hooting throng. Their eyes are fixed on the eternities.
EyesSeeMartyrProphetFixed
The outstanding truths of life, the great and unquestioned phenomena of society, are not to be argued away as myths and vagaries when they do not fit within our little moulds. If necessary, we must remake the moulds.
LifeGreatSocietyWithinLittle
There comes not seldom a crisis in the life of men, of nations, and of worlds, when the old forms seem ready to decay, and the old rules of action have lost their binding force. The evils of existing systems obscure the blessings that attend them, and, where reform is needed, the cry is raised for subversion.
LifeMenActionBlessingsRulesCry
Lawsuits are rare and catastrophic experiences for the vast majority of men, and even when the catastrophe ensues, the controversy relates most often not to the law, but to the facts. In countless litigations, the law Is so clear that judges have no discretion.
MenLawFactsJudgesRareClear
The risk to be perceived defines the duty to be obeyed.
DutyRiskDefinesObeyedPerceived
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.
ActionDirectionThoughtYouChoose
Method is much, technique is much, but inspiration is even more.
MoreInspirationEvenTechniqueMuch
Law never is, but is always about to be.
LawNeverAlwaysAbout
Prophecy, however honest, is generally a poor substitute for experience.
ExperiencePoorHonestProphecy
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