“Great cases like hard cases make bad law. For great cases are called great, not by reason of their importance in shaping the law of the future, but because of some accident of immediate overwhelming interest which appeals to the feelings and distorts the judgement.”

—  Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Northern Securities Co. v. United States, 193 U.S. 197, 400-401 (1904).
1900s

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Great cases like hard cases make bad law. For great cases are called great, not by reason of their importance in shapin…" by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.?
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. photo
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.107
United States Supreme Court justice 1841–1935

Related quotes

John Coleridge, 1st Baron Coleridge photo

“It is far more important the law should be administered with absolute integrity, than that in this case or in that the law should be a good law or a bad one.”

John Coleridge, 1st Baron Coleridge (1820–1894) British lawyer, judge and Liberal politician

1 Cababe & Ellis' Q. B. D. Rep. 134.
Reg. v. Ramsey (1883)

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. photo

“Now and then, an extraordinary case may turn up, but constitutional law, like other mortal contrivances, has to take some chances, and in the great majority of instances, no doubt, justice will be done.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841–1935) United States Supreme Court justice

Blinn v. Nelson, 222 U.S. 1, 7 (1911).
1910s

William Brett, 1st Viscount Esher photo

“A great deal of difficulty has been caused in the administration of the law, and particularly of the common law, by decisions in which technical rules have been formulated which were not true—that is, were not in accordance with the facts of the case.”

William Brett, 1st Viscount Esher (1815–1899) British lawyer, judge and politician

In re North, Ex parte Hasluck (1895), L. R. 2 Q. B. D. [1895], p. 269.

“Let us consider the reason of the case. For nothing is law that is not reason.”

John Powell (1645–1713) American Jesuit priest

Coggs vs. Bernard, Lord Raymond, 911, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reason... The law, which is perfection of reason", Edward Coke, First Institute.

Bernie Sanders photo

“Now here is my point. Some of you may agree with me, and some of you may not, but in my view, it would be hard for anyone in this room today to make the case that the United States of America, our great country, a country which all of us love, it would be hard to make the case that we are a just society, or anything resembling a just society today.”

Bernie Sanders (1941) American politician, senator for Vermont

2010s, Liberty University Speech (14 September 2015)

Whittaker Chambers photo

“Two faiths were on trial. Human societies, like human beings, live by faith and die when faith dies… At heart, the Great Case was this critical conflict of faiths; that is why it was a great case.”

Whittaker Chambers Witness

Source: Witness (1952), p. 4

Ernest Flagg photo

“Interest…. a design to be great must have great interest…. the most potent of all ways to impart interest is to endow the design with beauty of form, and… the one which makes the strongest appeal to human interest and admiration is physical beauty in human shape.”

Ernest Flagg (1857–1947) American architect

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

Sir Francis Buller, 1st Baronet photo

“A casus omissus can in no case be supplied by a Court of law, for that would be to make laws.”

Sir Francis Buller, 1st Baronet (1746–1800) British judge

Jones v. Smart (1785), 1 T. R. 52.

Aristotle photo

“And surely to know what this good is, is of great importance for the conduct of life, for in that case we shall be like archers shooting at a definite mark, and shall be more likely to do what is right. But, if this is the case, we must try to comprehend, in outline at least, what it is and to which of the sciences it belongs.”

Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy

Bk I, Ch I
The Ethics Of Aristotle (Vol. I)

William Scott, 1st Baron Stowell photo

“In the first place, it is not improper to observe, that the law of cases of necessity is not likely to be well furnished with precise rules; necessity creates the law, it supersedes rules; and whatever is reasonable and just in such cases, is likewise legal; it is not to be considered as matter of surprise, therefore, if much instituted rule is not to be found on such subjects.”

William Scott, 1st Baron Stowell (1745–1836) British politician

The Gratitudine (18 December 1801); as published in Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the High Court of Admiralty, Commencing with the Judgments of the Right Hon. Sir William Scott, Michaelmas Term, 1798, Vol. III (1802) http://books.google.com/books?id=-vcvAAAAYAAJ, p. 266.

Related topics