Jeffrey Rosen Quotes

Common sense, proportionality, and judgment are the skills we must seek in those we choose to regulate our lives.

The Judge should be quick of perception; firm of purpose, clear in judgment, lenient in the infliction of penalties; assiduous in the practice of mercy; expeditious in the vindication of the innocent: clement in his treatment of criminals; careful of the rights of the stranger; gentle toward his countrymen. He should be no respecter of (important) persons, and should avoid all appearance of partiality.

Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have.

Judges ought to be more leaned than witty, more reverent than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.

I think judicial temperament is a willingness to step back from your own committed views of the correct jurisprudential approach and evaluate those views in terms of your role as a judge. It's the difference between being a judge and being a law professor.

The true humanist maintains a just balance between sympathy and selection.

Philosophy is nothing but discretion.

Empathy is a virtue, but it should not be a guiding judicial principle.

I always try to have an open mind, but there is a difference between having an open mind and having a hole in the head.

A great deal may be done by severity, more by love, but most by clear discernment and impartial justice.

The complete truth is not the prerogative of the human judge.

If You are a magistrate of standing, commissioned to appease the many, remove stupidity from the record. When You speak, do not lean to one side, beware lest one complain.

The foolish reject what they see and not what they think; the wise reject what they think and not what they see.

When anger rushes unrestrained to action, like a hot steed, it stumbles on its way. The man of thought strikes deepest and strikes safely.

It is a wise man who knows where courage ends and stupidity begins.

Call him wise whose actions, words, and steps are all a clear because to a clear why.

Fools admire, but men of sense approve.

You must be wise, but not too wise.

I'm not saying Obama is right on everything. Of course not. He may be wrong on a number of things. But what I do know is that he behaves like a very, very sane man almost all the time.

Conduct, which involves a decision of the ultimate fate of the agent cannot be based on illusions.

You can be very wild and still be very wise.

The main engagement of the writer is towards truthfulness; therefore he must keep his mind and his judgement free.

As far as I remember, even younger than eight, I have always been guided by reason. Not cold reason, but that which leads to the truth, to the real, and to sane Justice.

In the last analysis sound judgment will prevail.

Moderation is the inseparable companion of wisdom, but with it genius has not even a nodding acquaintance.