Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
NUMBER:
1059
AUTHOR:
Learned Hand (1872–1961)
QUOTATION:
Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it…. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned, but has never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest.
ATTRIBUTION:
LEARNED HAND, “The Spirit of Liberty,” speech at an “I Am an American Day” ceremony, Central Park, New York City, May 21, 1944.—Hand, The Spirit of Liberty, 3d ed., enl., ed. Irving Dilliard, p. 190 (1960).
