We like rather to dream of a body of young men as a live thing, as a tree where all the branches are nourished by a single sap, and where each part is meaningless and incomplete except in connection with its fellows. You may lop away the dead branches, you may bend the trunk, you may dig about it and water it; but leave it to assume its own form, do not constrain the peculiar roots, or you will have a crippled, gnarled monster, and no tree.


"Class-Day Oration" (1893).

Learned Hand Quotes

We like rather to dream of a body of young men as a live thing, as a tree where all the branches are nourished by a single sap, and where each part...

We like rather to dream of a body of young men as a live thing, as a tree where all the branches are nourished by a single sap, and where each part...

We like rather to dream of a body of young men as a live thing, as a tree where all the branches are nourished by a single sap, and where each part...

We like rather to dream of a body of young men as a live thing, as a tree where all the branches are nourished by a single sap, and where each part...