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Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one's affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.

— Learned Hand

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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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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.