Precedent Quotes

If you're strong enough, there are no precedents.

Strength

All bad precedents began as justifiable measures.

The rule of adherence to precedent, though it ought not to be abandoned, ought to be in some degree relaxed.  I think that when a rule, after it has been duly tested by experience, has been found to be inconsistent with the sense of justice or with the social welfare, there should be less hesitation in frank avowal and full abandonment.

What has once been settled by a precedent will not be unsettled overnight.

Precedents are not mere dusty phrases, which do not substantially affect the question before us.  A precedent embalms a principle.

This is the danger, when vice becomes a precedent.

vice

The glory of each generation is to make its own precedents.