Quote of the month for September 2025
The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right…
Learned Hand, 1944
One of my favorite podcasts is Sean Carroll’s Mindscape. (For those who don’t know, Sean is a philosopher and theoretical physicist.) In a recent episode (No. 327 Cass Sunstein on Liberalism) his guest mentioned this quote from Judge Learned Hand. Their discussion centered primarily on the definition of the term “liberal” and judging by the comments left on the episode page, it kind of passed over the heads of a few people. I found it rather enlightening as the term has always kind of been vague to me. Turns out it still is-I just have a clearer picture of the vaguenesses involved.
Anyway, I found the idea very thought-provoking and relevant to the situation we find ourselves in at this time. Not to mention: what an interesting name!! “Learned Hand” Not a little pressure from your parents there, huh!?! So I looked up the speech and found that it actually goes a little deeper and despite my atheistic tendencies was a very intriguing read. It’s quite a short speech, and I highly recommend you read it a time or two and let it roll around in your head.
It is a bit of what we need in this era of Red vs Blue, of Us vs Them, of Other-ism making a comeback whether we want it to or not. It’s a reminder to slow down and consider the perspective of others-a gentle nudge to move out of your own head enough to try to imagine what others are experiencing, in the hope that we can one day come just a little closer to creating that ideal America, “which never will be except as the conscience and courage of Americans create it.”
