William O. Douglas Quotes
"We do not sit as a superlegislature to weigh the wisdom of legislation."
- William O. Douglas
(Related: Wisdom, Legislation)
"We who have the final word can speak softly or angrily. We can seek to challenge and annoy, as we need not stay docile and quiet."
- William O. Douglas
(Related: Challenge, Quiet, Word)
"The right to revolt has sources deep in our history."
- William O. Douglas
(Related: History, Deep, Right)
"The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedoms."
- William O. Douglas
(Related: Beginning, Right)
"The liberties of none are safe unless the liberties of all are protected."
- William O. Douglas
"The critical point is that the Constitution places the right of silence beyond the reach of government."
- William O. Douglas
(Related: Government, Constitution, Right, Silence)
"The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people."
- William O. Douglas
(Related: Government, People, Constitution)
"The 5th Amendment is an old friend and a good friend. one of the great landmarks in men's struggle to be free of tyranny, to be decent and civilized."
- William O. Douglas
(Related: Men, Friend, Old, Struggle, Tyranny)
"Since when have we Americans been expected to bow submissively to authority and speak with awe and reverence to those who represent us?"
- William O. Douglas
(Related: Americans, Authority)
"One who comes to the Court must come to adore, not to protest. That's the new gloss on the 1st Amendment."
- William O. Douglas
(Related: Court, Protest)
"No patent medicine was ever put to wider and more varied use than the Fourteenth Amendment."
- William O. Douglas
(Related: Medicine)
"Marriage is a coming together for better or for worse, hopefully enduring, and intimate to the degree of being sacred."
- William O. Douglas
(Related: Marriage, Being)
"Literature should not be suppressed merely because it offends the moral code of the censor."
- William O. Douglas
(Related: Literature)
"It seemed to me that I had barely reached the Court when people were trying to get me off."
- William O. Douglas
(Related: People, Court, Trying)
"Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience that hissed yesterday may applaud today, even for the same performance."
- William O. Douglas
(Related: Performance, Free speech, May, Today, Yesterday)
"Common sense often makes good law."
- William O. Douglas
(Related: Common sense, Law)
"At the constitutional level where we work, 90 percent of any decision is emotional. The rational part of us supplies the reasons for supporting our predilections."
- William O. Douglas
(Related: Work, Decision)
"We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being."
- William O. Douglas
(Related: People, Being, Religious)
"The association promotes a way of life, not causes; a harmony in living, not political faiths; a bilateral loyalty, not commercial or social projects. Yet it is an association for as noble a purpose as any involved in any prior decisions."
- William O. Douglas
(Related: Life, Purpose, Causes, Decisions, Harmony, Living, Loyalty, Projects)