Learned Hand: Quotes about thinking

“We believe, and I think properly, that when the men who met in 1787 to make our Constitution they made the best political document ever made; but, remember, they did so very largely because they were great compromisers.”

Learned Hand

Testimony before the United States Congress, Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, hearing on the Establishment of a Commission on Ethics in Government (1951).
Extra-judicial writings

Men , Thinking

“Justice, I think, is the tolerable accomodation of the conflicting interests of society, and I don't believe there is any royal road to attain such accomodations concretely.”

Learned Hand

From The Great Judge by Philip Hamburger (1946).
Extra-judicial writings

Justice , Thinking

“You may ask what then will become of the fundamental principles of equity and fair play which our constitutions enshrine; and whether I seriously believe that unsupported they will serve merely as counsels of moderation. I do not think that anyone can say what will be left of those principles; I do not know whether they will serve only as counsels; but this much I think I do know — that a society so riven that the spirit of moderation is gone, no court can save; that a society where that spirit flourishes, no court need save; that in a society which evades its responsibility by thrusting upon the courts the nurture of that spirit, that spirit in the end will perish.”

Learned Hand

"The Contribution of an Independent Judiciary to Civilization" (1942).
Extra-judicial writings

Thinking

“"I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken." I should like to have that written over the portals of every church, every school, and every courthouse, and, may I say, of every legislative body in the United States. I should like to have every court begin, "I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that we may be mistaken."”

Learned Hand

Morals in Public Life (1951); Hand is here paraphrasing a famous expression of Oliver Cromwell from his letter of 3 August 1650 to the general assembly of the Church of Scotland.
Extra-judicial writings

School , Thinking , Christ

“How long shall we blunder along without the aid of unpartisan and authoritative scientific assistance in the administration of justice, no one knows; but all fair persons not conventionalized by provincial legal habits of mind ought, I should think, unite to effect some change.”

Learned Hand

Parke, Davis & Co. v. H. K. Mulford Co. (1911).
Judicial opinions

Justice , Thinking , Change , Personality

“I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken.”

Learned Hand

I should like to have that written over the portals of every church, every school, and every courthouse, and, may I say, of every legislative body in the United States. I should like to have every court begin, "I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that we may be mistaken."

Morals in Public Life (1951); Hand is here paraphrasing a famous expression of Oliver Cromwell from his letter of 3 August 1650 to the general assembly of the Church of Scotland. Expanded upon in Establishment of a Commission on Ethics in Government, testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. Special Subcommittee on the Establishment of a Commission on Ethics in Government (1951), p. 218: I will give you an instance of what I mean, something he said that has always hung in my mind. It was just before the battle of Dunbar, where he beat the Scots, and that, as always, needed a very tough fight. (A marine whose name is Douglas will agree to that.) He wrote the Kirk before the fight, trying to get them to come to some reasonable composition: "I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken." I should like to have that written over the portal of every church, every school and every courthouse. May I say I should even add over the portal of every legislative room in the United States? I should like every court to begin: "I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken."
Extra-judicial writings

Christ , Thinking

“You may ask what then will become of the fundamental principles of equity and fair play which our constitutions enshrine; and whether I seriously believe that unsupported they will serve merely as counsels of moderation. I do not think that anyone can say what will be left of those principles; I do not know whether they will serve only as counsels; but this much I think I do know — that a society so riven that the spirit of moderation is gone, no court can save; that a society where that spirit flourishes, no court need save; that in a society which evades its responsibility by thrusting upon the courts the nurture of that spirit, that spirit in the end will perish. What is the spirit of moderation? It is the temper which does not press a partisan advantage to its bitter end, which can understand and will respect the other side, which feels a unity between all citizens—real and not the factitious product of propaganda—which recognizes their common fate and their common aspirations—in a word, which has faith in the sacredness of the individual.”

Learned Hand

"The Contribution of an Independent Judiciary to Civilization" (1942).
Extra-judicial writings

Faith , Understanding , Fate , Thinking