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If the prosecution of crime is to be conducted with so little regard for that protection which centuries of English law have given to the individual, we are indeed at the dawn of a new era; and much that we have deemed vital to our liberties, is a delusion.

— Learned Hand United States v. Di Re (1947)

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More quotes by Learned Hand

A wise man once said, "Convention is like the shell to the chick, a protection till he is strong enough to break it through."

Life is not a thing of knowing only — nay, mere knowledge has properly no place at all save as it becomes the handmaiden of feeling and emotion.

Class-Day Oration (1893)

What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty?

Right knows no boundaries and justice no frontiers; the brotherhood of man is not a domestic institution.

Life is made up of constant calls to action, and we seldom have time for more than hastily contrived answers.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Learned Hand (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.