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Quotes by Judge
"The history of liberty has largely been the history of the observance of procedural safeguards."
60
"While democracy must have its organization and controls, its vital breath is individual liberty."
60
"Right knows no boundaries, and justice no frontiers; the brotherhood of man is not a domestic institution."
60
"The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving."
60
"The lawyer has not reached the height of his vocation who does not find therein... scope for a peculiar but genuine artistic function."
60
"Consider the Essay as a political pamphlet on the Revolution side, and the fact that it was the Whig gospel for a century, and you will see its working merit."
60
"Have you ever found any logical reason why mutual promises are sufficient consideration for one another (like the two lean horses of a Calcutta hack who can only just stand together)? I have not."
59
"The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding."
59
"To listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well."
59
"If the provisions of the constitution be not upheld when they pinch as well as when they comfort, they may as well be abandoned."
59
"Ending racial discrimination in jury selection can be accomplished only by eliminating peremptory challenges entirely."
59
"There would be nights when I would wake up and couldn't get back to sleep. So I would go downstairs and write. The staff had a pool going on how many pages of typing I would bring in here in the morning."
59
"Nor does the idea of a moral order asserting itself against attack or want of conformity answer in full to our feelings regarding the tragic character."
59
"Proceeding further, to inquire whether the facts related by the Four Evangelists are proved by competent and satisfactory evidence, we are led, first, to consider on which side lies the burden of establishing the credibility of the witnesses."
58
"It must always be remembered that what the Constitution forbids is not all searches and seizures, but unreasonable searches and seizures."
58
"Shakespeare very rarely makes the least attempt to surprise by his catastrophes. They are felt to be inevitable, though the precise way in which they will be brought about is not, of course, foreseen."
58
"The Court is most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or design of the Constitution."
58
"The judicial system is the most expensive machine ever invented for finding out what happened and what to do about it."
58
"Today's Constitution is a realistic document of freedom only because of several corrective amendments. Those amendments speak to a sense of decency and fairness that I and other Blacks cherish."
58
"Even as someone who's labeled a conservative - I'm a Republican I'm black, I'm heading up this organization in the Reagan administration - I can say that conservatives don't exactly break their necks to tell blacks that they're welcome."
58
"It is difficult to discern a serious threat to religious liberty from a room of silent, thoughtful schoolchildren."
58
"Ben Franklin may have discovered electricity- but it is the man who invented the meter who made the money."
58
"The real problem today is the ineffective and inconsistent oversight of professional boxing, which has led to continuing scandals, controversies, unethical practices, and unnecessary injuries and deaths in the sport."
58
"To be seventy years young is sometimes for more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old."
58
"Nothing is so commonplace has the wish to be remarkable."
58
"We might not object to the statement that Lear deserved to suffer for his folly, selfishness and tyranny; but to assert that he deserved to suffer what he did suffer is to do violence not merely to language but to any healthy moral sense."
57
"When I hear of an 'equity' in a case like this, I am reminded of a blind man in a dark room - looking for a black hat - which isn't there."
57
"When France resolved, along with England, to lend assistance in the legitimate defense of Poland, the realization burst on us that a conflict of awesome proportions was inevitable."
57
"A person's mere propinquity to others independently suspected of criminal activity does not give rise to probable cause to search that person."
57
"The rule of joy and the law of duty seem to me all one."
57
"Pontius Pilate was the first great censor and Jesus Christ the first great victim of censorship."
57
"The framers of the Constitution were so clear in the federalist papers and elsewhere that they felt an independent judiciary was critical to the success of the nation."
57
"The most important political office is that of the private citizen."
57
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