Learned Hand Quotes
It would be most irksome to be ruled by a bevy of Platonic Guardians.
Learned Hand, 1872-1961, Federal Judge, 1958
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
His official title was: “President for Life, Protector of the People, Maximum Chief of the Revolution, Apostle of National Unity, Benefactor of the Poor, Grand Patron of Commerce and Industry, and Electrifier of Souls”. He made a mockery of his statement that the people are the source of all power.
Lippmann was the most influential pundit of the time. Roosevelt had just been elected but had not yet assumed office. The country was in the midst of the Great Depression and many communities had 80% unemployment. Banks had failed, people were starving, and many people thought that democracy was just not suited to deal with such severe problems. Roosevelt, however rejected the advice and always worked through the Congress and in so doing saved democracy in America.
Ransome had a unique access to Post Russian Revolutionary leadership as his fiancée was the secretary to key Russian Communist party committees and through her he had access to Lenin, Trotsky and other leaders. In general Ramsome is best known as a children’s book author.
Bartolo was the most famous legal expert of his day and for many years thereafter as he died at the age of 44—the height of his career. In Italy, Spain and other nations of Europe there were statutes passed that said if there was no precedent in Roman Law, the writings of Bartolo should dictate the law.
FDR was a marvelous judge of men and their character. De Gaulle could not separate himself from France and pushed the French Republic towards one man rule (himself) as much as anyone since Napoleon Bonaparte.
At the time of this statement most people thought that Bush was joking. But by the end of his Presidency many looked back on the quote and thought that Bush had such preferences. He unilaterally took the country into the Iraq War and assumed Presidential Powers that no other president had ever attempted. Most serious, his administration actually took the formal legal position that the President did not have to obey the law if he unilaterally thought that it was not in the nation’s interest from the point of view of the Commander in Chief. So many debate whether this quotation was a light hearted joke of a harbinger of his real feelings about the Presidency.
This is the argument—an essence of Fascism—of every dictator from Julius Caesar onward. See {640792} for more of his views on dictators.
Billings Learned Hand was an American judge and judicial philosopher. He served on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and later the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. As of 2004 Hand had been quoted more often by legal scholars and by the Supreme Court of the United States than any other lower-court judge.
