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Quote by Felix Frankfurter

“The eternal struggle in the law between constancy and change is largely a struggle between history and reason, between past reason and present needs.”

Quote by Felix Frankfurter

Author

Felix Frankfurter

Felix Frankfurter was a former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Born on November 15, 1882, and passing away on February 22, 1965, Frankfurter is renowned for his contributions to law and constitutional interpretation. His decisions and opinions have had a profound impact on the American legal system. more

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“In the first place, lawyers better remember they are human beings, and a human being who hasn't his periods of doubts and distresses and disappointments must be a cabbage, not a human being. That is number one.”

Firsts Humans Remember Human Beings Numbers Doubt Periods Disappointment Lawyer Distress Cabbage

Book:Proceedings in honor of Mr. Justice Frankfurter and distinguished alumni at the meeting of the Council, Harvard Law School Association in Cambridge, April 30, 1960

Source: Proceedings in honor of Mr. Justice Frankfurter and distinguished alumni at the meeting of the Council, Harvard Law School Association in Cambridge, April 30, 1960

“To be effective, judicial administration must not be leaden-footed.”

Administration Judicial

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“No judge writes on a wholly clean slate.”

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“It would be a narrow conception of jurisprudence to confine the notion of "laws" to what is found written on the statute books, and to disregard the gloss which life has written upon it.”

Book Would Be Law Found Written Notion Conception Disregard Statutes Gloss Jurisprudence

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“One who belongs to the most vilified and persecuted minority in history is not likely to be insensible to the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution... But as judges we are neither Jew nor Gentile, neither Catholic nor agnostic.”

Judging Constitution Catholic Jew Minorities Agnostic Persecuted Gentiles Insensible

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“Is that which was deemed to be of so fundamental a nature as to be written into the Constitution to endure for all times to be the sport of shifting winds of doctrine?”

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“After all, advocates, including advocates for States, are like managers of pugilistic and election contestants in that they have a propensity for claiming everything.”

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Author:Felix Frankfurter

“If one starts with the assumption that, in the absence of specific Congressional authority, a fixed rule of law precludes contracting officers from providing in a Government contract terms reasonably calculated to assure its performance even though there be no money loss through a particular default, there is no problem. But answers are not obtained by putting the wrong question, and thereby begging the real one.”

“If nowhere else, in the relation between Church and State, "good fences make good neighbors."”

Ifs States Church Relation Neighbor Fence Church And State Good Neighbor

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“The indispensible judicial requisite is intellectual humility.”

Humility Intellectual Judicial Intellectual Humility

Author:Felix Frankfurter