In trials of fact, by oral testimony, the proper inquiry is not whether is it possible that the testimony may be false, but whether there is sufficient probability that it is true.

There Simon was educated at the Latin school and studied the Greco-Roman classics. Simon Greenleaf (December 5 1783 – October 6 1853) American lawyer and jurist was born at Newburyport Massachusetts. In 1801 he joined the law office of Ezekiel Whitman (the later Chief Justice of Maine) and in 1806 was admitted to the Cumberland County bar as a legal practitioner.