“Our dangers, as it seems to me, are not from the outrageous but from the conforming”

— Learned Hand

"The Preservation of Personality" (2 June 1927).
Extra-judicial writings
Context: Our dangers, as it seems to me, are not from the outrageous but from the conforming; not from those who rarely and under the lurid glare of obloquy upset our moral complaisance, or shock us with unaccustomed conduct, but from those, the mass of us, who take their virtues and their tastes, like their shirts and their furniture, from the limited patterns which the market offers.

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Learned Hand 56

American legal scholar, Court of Appeals judge 1872–1961

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“Our dangers, as it seems to me, are not from the outrageous but from the conforming”

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Learned Hand 56

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