20th-century Lawyer Quotes

I think we ought to let him [Patrick Gray] hang there. Let him twist slowly, slowly in the wind.

John Ehrlichman

The case for originalism is quite different. It is that in our system of government, written laws (statutes and constitutional provisions) are supposed to provide stable rules around which society can organize itself. Such rules are presumed to remain in place until amended or repealed by the people. Originalism is aimed at preserving the laws enacted by the people or their representatives, and at preserving stability and predictability in our legal system.

A five-minute teacher understands that peers' words can carry a lot more weight than his or her own, and there is nothing wrong with students doing the teaching.

Securing, not prohibiting, the orderly transfer of wealth from A to B, based on wealth differentials, is the raison d'être of the [New Deal programs]. The contrast between the modern progressive and classical liberal agendas could not be more explicit.

Richard Epstein

Justice Antonin Scalia fundamentally changed the way the Supreme Court interpreted both statutes and the Constitution. In both contexts, his focus on text and its original public meaning often translated into more limited criminal prohibitions and broader constitutional protections for defendants. As to statutes, Justice Scalia refocused the court's attention on the text of the laws Congress enacted. Although he may not have succeeded in getting the court to forswear even looking at legislative history, he did persuade his colleagues to start — and very often end — the analysis with the text.

I am proud of what I have accomplished, especially while serving as chief justice, at the time I joined the court, it was marked by acrimony. When I became chief justice, we proved that good people who may differ in their opinions can come together and accomplish important things for the people we serve – and we do it amicably.

Robert P. Young Jr.

History is the heritage and patrimony of mankind in its lessons of the past that give priceless inspiration for the future.

If you get one good doctor, you get one good thing, but if you get one bad doctor, you get one bad thing. If you have a lawsuit, you get a bad lawyer, you lose your suit — you can appeal; but if you have one bad doctor, and he kills you, then there can be no appeal.

Nicholas Katzenbach

I never looked for anybody to hold the door open for me. I knew well that the only way I could get that door open was to knock it down: because I knocked all of them down.

Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander

We are all broken by something. We have all hurt someone and have been hurt. We all share the condition of brokenness even if our brokenness is not equivalent.

Bryan Stevenson

The world is my country, the human race is my race. The spirit of man is my god, the future of man is my heaven.

I am deeply grateful and honored for the opportunity to serve my country. I thank the President and his staff for their confidence in me and I am eager to work tirelessly on behalf of the American worker

Alexander Acosta

Calls for equal treatment are often seen as calls for 'special treatment' in situations where discrimination has become the norm.

Couples counseling gets many couples back together. But not all, and not always. For your own sake and that of your children, however, I recommend it - I almost insist on it - as the first step for anyone unhappy in a relationship.

I don't ask employers, for example, to like blacks or Jews or native people; I ask employers to hire the qualified members of thesegroups whether they likethem or not.

Deserts are where mountains go when they die.

Your melancholy. Or depression. Along with nine-tenths of the afflictions I've studied, diagnosed, attempted to treat. Call them whatever you like, but they're just different names for loneliness. That's what lets the darkness in. That's what you have to fight.

Law is not a mausoleum. It is not an antique to be taken down, dusted, admired and put back on the shelf. It is like an old but vigorous tree, having roots in history, yet continuously taking new grafts and putting out new sprouts and occasionally dropping dead wood. It is essentially a social process, the end product of which is justice and hence it must change with changing social values. Otherwise there will be estrangement between law and justice and law will cease to have legitimacy.

A lawyer's either a social engineer or he's a parasite on society.

Charles Hamilton Houston

My dear, erase the word discouragement from your dictionary and your mind; it isn't worthy of a woman who hopes to be a nurse; never let me hear you say it again.

Alice S. Fisher