The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
Justice O'Connor and If
I haven't had anything to say on occasion of the death of Justice O'Connor; there just doesn't seem to be anything to add beyond what others have said. (I particularly recommend Jonathan Rauch's remembrance and reflection.) But I did notice that Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde's homily at the funeral quoted Justice O'Connor's speech in honor of one of her Stanford professors (Harry Rathbun), which in turn quoted Rudyard Kipling's If.
The Bishop thought the poem gave some insight into the Justice's character, and I think she was correct. Plus, it's a great poem; here's the excerpt that Justice O'Connor had included in her speech:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: …If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!
