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Dark, But Not In Our Hearts

Jun 8, 2012
By .
Effluvia

What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty? I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws, and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there, it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it.

–Judge Learned Hand, "Spirit of Liberty" speech, "I am an American" Day, June 21, 1944.

Agitate, agitate, agitate.

–Frederick Douglass.

Last 5 posts by Ken White

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3 Comments

  1. Harry Lime  •  Jun 8, 2012 @10:44 am

    Your first quote is probably Learned Hand's best quote (my favorite), although here are two more good ones:

    "In the end it is worse to suppress dissent than to run the risk of heresy."

    "Life is made up of a series of judgments on insufficient data, and if we waited to run down all our doubts, it would flow past us."

    I have to remind myself of this second quote from time to time.

  2. C. S. P. Schofield  •  Jun 8, 2012 @1:06 pm

    "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there, it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it."

    In effect the Constitution, Bill of Rights, etc. exist so that there is enough delay between when it becomes obvious what the next bunch of would-be aristocrats has planned and when it goes into effect that people can work themselves into a proper rage and build the necessary guillotines.

  3. Anon  •  Jun 8, 2012 @1:15 pm

    I think BK may have filed a criminal complaint today in Maryland against someone in Florida. See @ali tweet.

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