Learned Hand Quotes

Democracy don't rule the world, You'd better get that in your head; This world is ruled by violence, But I guess that's better left unsaid.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.

The desire for liberty has also made itself felt as struggle against domestic tyranny or arbitrary rule.

Democracy is the form of government that gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.

I would prefer to be a citizen of an independent country rather than Emperor of an enslaved one.

Democratic institutions are based on a reality of human nature: that those with power, however benign or even noble their intentions, will do what they can to keep it.

No people must be forced under a sovereignty under which it does not wish to live.

Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery

The resources, advantages, and powers of the American people are very great, and they have, consequently, succeeded to equally great responsibilities. It seems to have devolved upon them to test whether a government, established on the principles of human freedom, can be maintained against an effort to build one upon the exclusive foundation of human bondage.

The real strength of the democratic theory in opposition to the fascist or communist is that the fascist frankly states that certain people will tell other people what they shall do to be happy, and those other people have little or nothing to say about it. In theory the communists were to do everything in common, in practice a small group there also tells other people what they shall do to achieve their objectives. So far more nearly than any other form of government, the democratic form has allowed people to shape their own government

The spectacle which confronts all Europe today is a great conflict between democracy and dictatorship.

When the president decides that he knows better than you know what's good for you or your family, we've got trouble in this country.

The ancients understood the regulation of power better than the regulation of liberty.

The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear.

Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.

It is not good to have a rule of many.

No cause is left but the most ancient of all, the one, in fact, that from the beginning of our history has determined the very existence of politics, the cause of freedom versus tyranny.

Freedom is never easily won, but once established, freedom lasts, spreads and chokes out tyranny.

Not by the forces of civil war can you govern the very weakest woman. You can kill that woman, but she escapes you then; you cannot govern her. No power on earth can govern a human being, however feeble, who withholds his or her consent.

A dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority: what it abominates most is the dissent of the majority.

There have been in this century only one great man and one great thing: Napoleon and liberty. For want of the great man, let us have the great thing.

People demand freedom only when they have no power.

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.