Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.
If statistics are any indication, the system may well be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed.
Historically courts in this country have been insulated. We do not look beyond our borders for precedents.
The ultimate touchstone of constitutionality is the Constitution itself and not what we have said about it.
Who is to say that 5 men 10 years ago were right whereas 5 men looking the other direction today are wrong.
A government, forever changing and changeable, is, indeed, in a state bordering upon anarchy and confusion.
In the frank expression of conflicting opinions lies the greatest promise of wisdom in governmental action.
To an imagination of any scope the most far reaching form of power is not money, it is the command of ideas
I like to think that the court will continue to be held in high regard by the public. I think it should be.
One who comes to the Court must come to adore, not to protest. That's the new gloss on the First Amendment.
In a perfect world, I would never give another speech, address, talk, lecture or whatever as long as I live.
The ultimate touchstone of constitutionality is the Constitution itself, and not what we have said about it.
We forget that the most successful statesmen have been professionals. Lincoln was a professional politician.
A democracy cannot function effectively when its constituent members believe laws are being bought and sold.
Mere access to the courthouse doors does not by itself assure a proper functioning of the adversary process.
Meaning comes from the capacity to see what is not in some simple, objective sense there on the printed page.
The mark of a truly civilized man is confidence in the strength and security derived from the inquiring mind.
A nuisance may be merely a right thing in the wrong place - like a pig in the parlor instead of the barnyard.
The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts, but learning how to make facts live.
Yes, I will bring the understanding of a woman to the Court, but I doubt that alone will affect my decisions.
If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I would not pass it around. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it.
Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds.
Each of you, as an individual, must pick your own goals. Listen to others, but do not become a blind follower.
I do not know of any salvation for society except through eccentrics, misfits, dissenters, people who protest.
Loyalty must arise spontaneously from the hearts of people who love their country and respect their government.
Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent.
The world is always ready to receive talent with open arms. Very often it does not know what to do with genius.
Absolute discretion is a ruthless master. It is more destructive of freedom than any of man's other inventions.
It has not been unknown that judges persist in error to avoid giving the appearance of weakness and vacillation.
A new and valid idea is worth more than a regiment and fewer men can furnish the former than command the latter.
These death sentences are cruel and unusual in the same way that being struck by lightning is cruel and unusual.
I think I learned to appreciate and treasure each day, because you don't know how many you're going to be given.
The level of discourse reaching a mailbox simply cannot be limited to that which would be suitable for a sandbox.
To secure integrity there must a lofty sense of duty and a deep responsibility to future times as well as to God.
We are not won by arguments that we can analyze, but by tone and temper; by the manner, which is the man himself.
Fame is the scentless sunflower, with gaudy crown of gold; But friendship is the rose, with sweets in every fold.
The law is not a series of calculating machines where answers come tumbling out when the right levers are pushed.
The right to privacy... is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.
The Court today holds the Congress may say that some of the poor are too poor even to go bankrupt. I cannot agree.
It's hard to have little children and a job and career at the same time. There is no time left for you as a woman.
It is difficult to discern a serious threat to religious liberty from a room of silent, thoughtful schoolchildren.
Law not served by power is an illusion; but power not ruled by law is a menace which our nuclear age cannot afford.
The great tides and currents which engulf the rest of men do not turn aside in their course and pass the judges by.
The First Amendment was not intended to withdraw the Christian religion as a whole from the protection of Congress.
I think all of our human Experience shows that no one with absolute power can be trusted to give it up even in part
The only prize much cared for by the powerful is power. The prize of the general is not a bigger tent, but command.
The minute a phrase, becomes current, it becomes an apology for not thinking accurately to the end of the sentence.
It's a good thing to be rich and a good thing to be strong, but it is a better thing to be beloved of many friends.
History, in illuminating the past, illuminates the present, and in illuminating the present, illuminates the future.
Every human being of adult years and sound mind has a legal right to determine what shall be done with his own body.