Charles Fried Quotations

If only people who are ideologically committed to a particular outcome argued to the courts, the law would be worse off.

The profession is designed to help the court by making sure that the best possible arguments - not misleading arguments, not arguments that stretch a point, not arguments that hide precedents - but that the best possible arguments are presented, ... That's the business we're in. It's very much like if you were a doctor. Do you only cure people who, when they're cured, will lead their lives as you were going to lead them?

My impression of him, and the impressions of everyone in the office, was he is a very fine lawyer, a very hard worker, a beautiful writer and absolutely, meticulously objective.

I think in many respects, his hold on his court in the last few years has begun to slip away.

It's a big tree, but it has ramified and exfoliated, ... would be an enormous disruption.

It is really a euphemism for asking the man, 'how are you going to decide particular cases that I care about? It is a kind of smoke screen for asking that question.

The main thing that drew me to him was that he was a beautiful writer, not just the clarity but the aptness of expression.