Learned Hand

[M]y friends, will you not agree that any society which begins to be doubtful of itself; in which one man looks at another and says: “He may be a traitor,” in which that spirit has disappeared which says: “I will not accept that, I will not believe that—I will demand proof. I will not say of my brother that he may be a traitor,” but I will say, “Produce what you have. I will judge it fairly, and if he is, he shall pay the penalties; but I will not take it on rumor. I will not take it on hearsay. I will remember that what has brought us up from savagery is a loyalty to truth, and truth cannot emerge unless it is subjected to the utmost scrutiny”—will you not agree that a society which has lost sight of that, cannot survive?

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