William O Douglas Quotes

It is better, so the Fourth Amendment teaches us, that the guilty sometimes go free than the citizens be subject to easy arrest. — William O. Douglas

Sunlight is the best disinfectant. — William O. Douglas

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

Power that controls the economy should be in the hands of elected representatives of the people instead of an industrial oligarchy — William O. Douglas

Why cannot we work at cooperative schemes and search for the common ground binding all mankind together? — William O. Douglas

When a man knows how to live amid danger, he is not afraid to die. When he is not afraid to die, he is, strangely, free to live. — William O. Douglas

Fear of ideas makes us impotent and ineffective. — William O. Douglas

We need to be bold and adventurous in our thinking in order to survive. — William O. Douglas

The use of violence as an instrument of persuasion is therefore inviting and seems to the discontented to be the only effective protest. — William O. Douglas

We do not sit as a superlegislature to weigh the wisdom of legislation. — William O. Douglas

The law is not a series of calculating machines where answers come tumbling out when the right levers are pushed. — William O. Douglas

The way to combat noxious ideas is with other ideas. The way to combat falsehoods is with truth. — William O. Douglas

We deal with a right of privacy older than the Bill of Rights-older than our political parties, older than our school system. — William O. Douglas

Literature should not be suppressed merely because it offends the moral code of the censor. — William O. Douglas

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

The one governmental agency that has no ambition. — William O. Douglas

Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes. - WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet — John E. Douglas

I do not know of any salvation for society except through eccentrics, misfits, dissenters, people who protest, — William O. Douglas

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

The dominant purpose of the First Amendment was to prohibit the widespread practice of government suppression of embarrassing information. — William O. Douglas

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

The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom.
[Public Utilities Commission v. Pollak, 343 U.S. 451, 467 (1952) (dissenting)] — William O. Douglas

Tell the FBI that the kidnappers should pick out a judge that Nixon wants back. — William O. Douglas

Hiking a ridge, a meadow, a river bottom, is as healthy a form of exercise as one can get. — William O. Douglas

Freedom of movement is the very essence of our free society
once the right to travel is curtailed, all other rights suffer. — William O. Douglas

The court is really the keeper of the conscience, and the conscience is the Constitution. — William O. Douglas

It seemed to me that I had barely reached the Court when people were trying to get me off. — William O. Douglas

The Constitution favors no racial group, no political or social group. — William O. Douglas

My faith is that the only soul a man must save is his own. — William O. Douglas

There have always been grievances and youth has always been the agitator. — William O. Douglas

The conscience of this nation is the Constitution. — William O. Douglas

We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being. — William O. Douglas

A road is a dagger placed in the heart of a wilderness. — William O. Douglas

Racial discrimination against a white is as unconstitutional as race discrimination against a black. — William O. Douglas

The First Amendment makes confidence in the common sense of our people and in the maturity of their judgement the great postulate of our democracy. — William O. Douglas

The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people. — William O. Douglas

The Court's great power is its ability to educate, to provide moral leadership. — William O. Douglas

I would rather create a precedent than find one. — William O. Douglas

A people who extend civil liberties only to preferred groups start down the path either to dictatorship of the right or the left. — William O. Douglas

Marriage is a coming together for better or for worse, hopefully enduring, and intimate to the degree of being sacred. — William O. Douglas

The interests of the corporation state are to convert all the riches of the earth into dollars. — William O. Douglas

Acceptance by government of a dissident press is a measure of the maturity of a nation. — William O. Douglas

O this itch of the ear, that breaks out at the tongue! Were not curiosity so over-busy, detraction would soon be starved to death. — Douglas William Jerrold

Common sense often makes a good law. — William O. Douglas

The Second Amendment reveals a profound principle of American government - the principle of civilian ascendency over the military. — William O. Douglas

Man is whole when he is in tune with the winds, the stars, and the hills ... Being in tune with the universe is the entire secrets. — William O. Douglas

Absolute discretion is a ruthless master. It is more destructive of freedom than any of man's other inventions. — William O. Douglas

Trees have judicial standing, and probably grass too. — William O. Douglas

The critical point is that the Constitution places the right of silence beyond the reach of government. — William O. Douglas

No patent medicine was ever put to wider and more varied use than the Fourteenth Amendment. — William O. Douglas

The free state offers what a police state denies - the privacy of the home, the dignity and peace of mind of the individual. — William O. Douglas

The rules when the giants play are the same as when the pygmies enter the market. — William O. Douglas

A reporter is no better than his source of information. — William O. Douglas

The right to revolt has sources deep in our history. — William O. Douglas

Ideas are indeed the most dangerous weapons in the world. Our ideas of freedom are the most powerful political weapons man has ever forged. — William O. Douglas

The liberties of none are safe unless the liberties of all are protected. — William O. Douglas

Common sense often makes good law. — William O. Douglas

Our upside down welfare state is socialism for the rich, free enterprise for the poor. — William O. Douglas