Quotes by Alan Dershowitz - Page 4

If we move away from the American tradition of lawyers defending those with whom they vehemently disagree -- as we temporarily did during the McCarthy period -- we weaken our commitment to the rule of law... So beware of an approach which limits advocacy to that which is approved by the standards of political correctness.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Respect
Commitment
Moving
Responsibility
Copy Quote
We all learn in school that the judicial, legislative and executive branches of government must check and balance each other. But other non state institutions must participate in this important system of checks and balances as well. These checking institutions include the academy, the media, religious institutions and NGOs.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Academy
Balance
Branches
Judicial
Media
Religious
School
Check
Checks And Balances
Executive
Include
Legislative
Ngos
Participate
System
Copy Quote
In some ways, Israel has achieved a peace. There are fewer rockets being sent into Sderot, there are no rockets to speak of from the North, there has been very little terrorism from the West Bank. It's a kind of peace. I hope for a better and more enduring peace. Peace is not an endgame; we will never be completely at peace.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Endgame
Fewer
Rockets
Terrorism
Achieved
Bank
West Bank
Copy Quote
I don't think the law exists to arrive at the truth. If it did, we wouldn't have exclusionary rules, we wouldn't have presumptions of innocence, we wouldn't have proof beyond reasonable doubt. There's an enormous difference between the role of truth in law and the role of truth in science. In law, truth is one among many goals.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Science
Truth
Doubt
Enormous
Innocence
Law
Presumption Of Innocence
Proof
Reasonable
Thinking
Truth Is
Rules
Among
Arrive
Did
Between
Exists
Role
Copy Quote
Ed Koch will never "rest in peace." That was not his way. He was always nervously squirming, while making others squirm as well. Comfort was not his goal. He understood that to be a proud and assertive Jew meant never being able to leave a sigh of relief and say "it's over, we are at peace, we can now put down our guard and relax."
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Goal
Rest In Peace
Sigh Of Relief
Copy Quote
Ed Koch will never 'rest in peace.' That was not his way. He was always nervously squirming, while making others squirm as well. Comfort was not his goal. He understood that to be a proud and assertive Jew meant never being able to leave a sigh of relief and say, 'It's over, we are at peace, we can now put down our guard and relax.'
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Able
Assertive
Comfort
Jew
Proud
Relax
Sigh
Understood
Meant
Leave
Rest
Guard
His Way
Making
While
Copy Quote
We live in an age where there is both more expression and more self-censorship than existed even a decade ago. Alas, laws have immunized internet carriers from many of the usual rules that govern public dialogue. Rights must always stay ahead of technology to assure that constitutional protections apply to all forms of communication.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Age
Communication
Technology
Copy Quote
Foolish liberals who are trying to read the Second Amendment out of the constitution by claiming it's not an individual right or that it's too much of a safety hazard don't see the danger of the big picture. They're courting disaster by encouraging others to use this same means to eliminate portions of the Constitution they don't like.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Gun
Mean
Safety
Copy Quote
You can't think about terrorism without thinking about Palestinian terrorism. Palestinians began international terrorism. It started with them in 1968. They used it as the first resort, not the last resort. They invented it, they perfected it, they benefited from it and they taught the world how to use it and that it would be successful.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
International
International Terrorism
Palestinian
Successful
Terrorism
Thinking
Would Be
Began
Palestinians
Resort
Copy Quote
When I decide who to vote for as President, I ask myself who will be best for America and for the world. An important component of my answer involves my assessment of the candidate's willingness and ability to protect Israel's security, since I strongly believe that a strong Israel serves the interests of the United States and of world peace.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Assessment
Believe
Israel
Strong
Vote
Willingness
Candidate
Component
Involves
Strongly
World Peace
Copy Quote
The very concept of an Iranian university is an oxymoron. There are no free and open places of learning in that repressive theocracy. Dissenters are not given tenure; they are murdered, after first being tortured. Blasphemy, which is broadly defined, is punished. Gays are not only excluded from Iranian universities, but are imprisoned and killed.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Firsts
Gay
Theocracy
Copy Quote
I'm worried about privacy because of the young people who don't give a damn about their privacy, who are prepared to put their entire private lives online. They put stuff on Facebook that 15 years from now will prevent them from getting the jobs they want. They don't understand that they are mortgaging their future for a quick laugh from a friend.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Jobs
People
Years
Copy Quote
To ask about the 'source' of rights or morals assumes an erreous conclusion. To ask about the source of morals is to assume that such a source exists. As if it existed outside of human constructed systems. The 'source' is the human ability to learn from experience and to entrench rights in our laws and in our consciousness. Our rights come from our long history of wrongs.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Law
Long
Rights
Copy Quote
Law is an imperfect profession in which success can rarely be achieved without some sacrifice of principle. Thus all practicing lawyers -- and most others in the profession -- will necessarily be imperfect, especially in the eyes of young idealists. There is no perfect justice, just as there is no absolute in ethics. But there is perfect injustice, and we know it when we see it.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Inspirational
Motivational
Eye
Copy Quote
Students throughout the totalitarian world risk life and limb for freedom of expression, many American college students are demanding that big brother restrict their freedom of speech on campus. This demand for enhanced censorship is not emanating only from the usual corner - the know-nothing fundamentalist right - it is coming from the radical, and increasingly not-so-radical left as well.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Government
Brother
College
Copy Quote
The threat of mutually assured destruction worked for the United States during the Cold War because it had proved its willingness to drop nuclear bombs on enemy cities at the end of World War II. It might work less well for Israel, because the Israeli Air Force has never deliberately targeted a large civilian population center, and its leaders have said its morality would not permit it do so.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
War
Air
Israel
Copy Quote
The plain message conveyed by the new administration is that George W Bush's America is a Christian nation, and that non-Christians are welcome into the tent so long as they agree to accept their status as a tolerated minority rather than as fully equal citizens. In effect, Bush is saying: "This is our home, and in our home we pray to Jesus as our savior. If you want to be a guest in our home, you must accept the way we pray."
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Jesus
Home
Christian
Copy Quote
But the United States is neither a Christian nation nor the exclusive home of any particular religious group. Non-Christians are not guests. We are as much hosts as any Mayflower-descendant Protestant. It is our home as well as theirs. And in a home with so many owners, there can be no official sectarian prayer. That is what the First Amendment is all about, and the first act by the new administration was in defiance of our Constitution.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Christian
Prayer
Religious
Copy Quote
When it comes to partisan politics, everyone is a hypocrite. And all they care about is whether it hurts or helps them ... Is it good or bad for the Democrats? Is it good or bad for the Republicans? Is it good or bad for Jews, or good or bad for blacks, or is it good or bad for women? Is it good or bad for men? Is it good or bad for gays? That's the way people think about issues today. There is very little discussion of enduring principles.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Gay
Hurt
Hypocrite
Copy Quote
Let no one ever shy away from the claim that Jews have power, that Jews have influence. We have learned the terrible lesson of history; that unless we have influence and power, disproportionate to our small numbers - immoral results will occur. We need power. And we must continue to use our power. Power which we earned, power which no one gave us on a silver platter, power which we worked hard for - use that power in the interests of justice.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Influence And Power
Silver Platter
Small Numbers
Copy Quote
Yes, believers and non-believers and skeptics can all live together and get along. But there cannot be an imperialistic imposition of religion by the state or by the church. All people must be equal--believers, skeptics, disbelievers, atheists, and those who chose religion. Unless we are all deemed equal, and unless the morality of disbelief is deemed the equivalent of the morality of belief, we will simply be tolerated, and that is not the American way.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Atheist
Church
People
Copy Quote
In representing criminal defendants - especially guilty ones - it is often necessary to take the offensive against the government: to put the government on trial for its misconduct. In law, as in sports, the best defense is often a good offense. The courtroom oath - to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth - is applicable only to witnesses... because the American justice system is built on a foundation of not telling the whole entire truth.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Government
Sports
Law
Copy Quote
I fear that the impact of university censorship and university denial of due process will be to mis-educate a generation of students away from core values of civil liberties and constitutional safeguards. Students who have been led to believe by university administrators and faculty that censorship and denial of due process are acceptable norms will be more susceptible to accepting those norms in their post-university lives. That would be a tragedy for America.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Believe
Liberty
Tragedy
Copy Quote
When the Jews were being persecuted by the Nazis in 1944 we passed the War Refugee Act, which focused on rescuing Jews, a religious group. But if the religious group is the subject of the persecution based on their religion, it's perfectly OK for a First Amendment-bound society to emphasize their rescue, just as it is perfectly OK to emphasize the fact that many, if not all of the perpetrators of Islamic terrorism, come from countries with a history of supporting terrorism.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
War
Country
Religious
Copy Quote
Look, I don't know whether God exists. I don't know that. And I tell you one thing, I am not frightened of my beliefs. If there is a God who is threatening me with damnation because I don't believe in Him, so be it. I've lived my life in conscience, and I will suffer damnation willingly in conscience against a tyrannical God who would damn me because, on the basis of the intelligence He gave me, I have come to a conclusion doubting His existence, and I will continue to be a skeptic all of my life.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Believe
Doubt
If There Is A God
Copy Quote
I have made a career out of arguing that we shouldn't be criminalizing political differences. I've made a career out of arguing that the grand jury is an abusive institution. I have made a career out of arguing that we shouldn't stretch and expand the criminal law. I'm not going to change it because you think these are abnormal times. When Thomas Jefferson told the Justice Department that they had to prosecute Aaron Burr, and that he was going to have the chief justice impeached unless he found Aaron Burr guilty, those were special times too.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Justice
Political
Thinking
Copy Quote
Though Israel may often be deserving of criticism, what is missing is the comparable criticism of equal or greater violations by other countries and other groups. This constant, often legitimate criticism of Israel for every one of its deviations, when coupled with the absence of legitimate criticism of others, creates the impression currently prevalent on university campuses and in the press that Israel is among the worst human rights violators in the world....it is not true, but if it is repeated often enough, it takes on a reality of its own.
Alan Dershowitz / Lawyer
Country
Reality
Rights
Copy Quote

Related Lawyer Authors

Xu Zhiyong
Lawyer
Friday, Mar 02, 1973
Winnie Ewing
Lawyer
Wednesday, Jul 10, 1929
William Rawle
Lawyer
Saturday, Apr 28, 1759
Tuesday, Apr 12, 1836
William Mulock
Lawyer
Thursday, Jan 19, 1843
Sunday, Oct 01, 1944
William Kunstler
Lawyer
Monday, Jul 07, 1919
Monday, Sep 04, 1995
William H. Hastie
Lawyer
Thursday, Nov 17, 1904
Wednesday, Apr 14, 1976
William H. Ginsburg
Lawyer
Thursday, Mar 25, 1943
Monday, Apr 01, 2013
William B. Travis
Lawyer
Tuesday, Aug 01, 1809
Sunday, Mar 06, 1836
Wesley J. Smith
Lawyer
Wendy Kaminer
Lawyer
Wednesday, Dec 28, 1949
Wendy Davis
Lawyer
Thursday, May 16, 1963
Wendell Willkie
Lawyer
Thursday, Feb 18, 1892
Sunday, Oct 08, 1944
Wendell Phillips
Lawyer
Friday, Nov 29, 1811
Saturday, Feb 02, 1884
Wallace Nesbitt
Lawyer
Thursday, May 13, 1858
Monday, Apr 07, 1930
Viet D. Dinh
Lawyer
Thursday, Feb 22, 1968

View All Lawyer Quotes

Top Authors

Jean De La Bruyere
Wednesday, Aug 16, 1645
Thursday, May 10, 1696
Niccolo Machiavelli
Historian
Monday, May 03, 1469
Tuesday, Jun 21, 1527
Abraham Lincoln
16Th U.S. President
Sunday, Feb 12, 1809
Saturday, Apr 15, 1865
Kim Kardashian
Television Personality
Tuesday, Oct 21, 1980
Pope John Paul Ii
Priest
Tuesday, May 18, 1920
Saturday, Apr 02, 2005
Henry David Thoreau
Author
Saturday, Jul 12, 1817
Tuesday, May 06, 1862
Peter Drucker
Author
Friday, Nov 19, 1909
Friday, Nov 11, 2005
Thomas Sowell
Economist
Monday, Jun 30, 1930
Isaac Newton
Physicist
Sunday, Jan 04, 1643
Monday, Mar 31, 1727
Benjamin Franklin
Founding Father Of The United States
Sunday, Jan 17, 1706
Saturday, Apr 17, 1790
Thomas Aquinas
Priest
Tuesday, Jan 28, 1225
Wednesday, Mar 07, 1274
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Poet
Saturday, Aug 05, 1809
Thursday, Oct 06, 1892
George Carlin
Comedian
Wednesday, May 12, 1937
Sunday, Jun 22, 2008
Oscar Wilde
Writer
Monday, Oct 16, 1854
Friday, Nov 30, 1900
Marcus Aurelius
Roman Emperor
Saturday, Apr 26, 0121
Friday, Mar 17, 0180

View All Authors

Alan Dershowitz Quotes - Page 4

App & Tools

Related Lawyer Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page

Stay Connected

App & Tools

Related Lawyer Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page