We've been trained to squint into a legal microscope, hoping that we can judge any dispute against the standard of a perfect society where everyone will agree what's fair, and where accidents will be extinct, and risk will be no more.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the unrealistic expectation of achieving absolute fairness and a risk-free society through legal mechanisms.
Philip K. Howard's quote critiques the tendency of society to overly rely on legal systems to resolve disputes under a false assumption of a perfect world. He suggests that such a perspective is flawed because it ignores the inherent complexities of human nature and the inevitability of risk and accidents in life. Instead of striving for an unattainable ideal, we should recognize and manage the nuances of fairness and justice in our imperfect society.
In practice
This quote can be used in a law school discussion about the limitations of the legal system.
Well, I believe life is a Zen koan, that is, an unsolvable riddle. But the contemplation of that riddle - even though it cannot be solved - is, in itself, transformative. And if the contemplation is of high enough quality, you can merge with the divine.
Remember that you are an actor in a play, and that the Playwright chooses the manner of it: If he wants you to act a poor man you must act the part with all your powers; and so if your part be a cripple or a magistrate or a plain man. For your business is to act the character that is given you and act it well. The choice of the cast is Another's.
You're beginning to hear the tale of the common man and woman rather than the traditional memoir about the generals who just finished the war or the politicians who just rendered glorious service to the country.
Know that this universe is nothing but a dream bluff of nature to test your consciousness of immortality.
If you are lonely when you're alone, you are in bad company.
Words are not as satisfactory as we should like them to be, but, like our neighbours, we have got to live with them and must make the best and not the worst of them.
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