Judicial judgment must take deep account of the day before yesterday in order that yesterday may not paralyze today.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of learning from the past to avoid being hindered in the present.
Felix Frankfurter's quote highlights the necessity of considering historical context when making judicial decisions. It advocates for a judicial system that recognizes the lessons of the past, which can inform and guide today's choices, thereby preventing outdated judgments from stifling progress and justice in contemporary society.
In practice
In a legal seminar discussing the importance of precedent, one could quote Frankfurter to emphasize the role of history in law.
Ultimately there can be no freedom for self unless it is vouchsafed for others; there can be no security where there is fear, and a democratic society presupposes confidence and candor in the relations of men with one another and eager collaboration for the larger ends of life instead of the pursuit of petty, selfish or vainglorious aims.
The accretion of dangerous power does not come in a day. It does come, however slowly, from the generative force of unchecked disregard of the restrictions that fence in even the most disinterested assertion of authority.
Democracy is always a beckoning goal, not a safe harbor. For freedom is an unremitting endeavor, never a final achievement.
Without a free press there can be no free society. That is axiomatic. However, freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means to the end of a free society. The scope and nature of the constitutional guarantee of the freedom of the press are to be viewed and applied in that light.
The words of the Constitution... are so unrestricted by their intrinsic meaning or by their history or by tradition or by prior decisions that they leave the individual Justice free, if indeed they do not compel him, to gather meaning not from reading the Constitution but from reading life.
Litigation is the pursuit of practical ends, not a game of chess.
I had a great teacher in India who said to me, 'If you think you're spiritual and evolved and enlightened, go home for Christmas.'
Meditation is the way in which we come to feel our basic inseparability from the whole universe, and what that requires is that we shut up.
It is best for the wise man not to seem wise.
If you believe in living a respectable life, you believe in self-help which is the best help!
The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which mean never losing your enthusiasm.
Prefer punishment to disgraceful gain; for the one is painful but once, but the other for one's whole life.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.