William O. Douglas Short Quotes

25 Sourced Quotes

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The right to revolt has sources deep in our history.

William O. Douglas
The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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
Religious experiences which are as real as life to some may be incomprehensible to others.

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

William O. Douglas
That seems to us to be the common sense of the matter; and common sense often makes good law.

William O. Douglas
God made the wilderness for man and all other creatures to use, to adore, but not to destroy.

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

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

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

William O. Douglas
The whole, though larger than any of its parts, does not necessarily obscure their separate identities.

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

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

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

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

William O. Douglas
One who comes to the Court must come to adore, not to protest. That's the new gloss on the First Amendment, Potter.

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
Yet as I read the Constitution, one of its essential purposes was to take government off the backs of people and keep it off.

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
All executive power – from the reign of ancient kings to the rule of modern dictators – has the outward appearance of efficiency.

William O. Douglas