Clarence Darrow Quotes

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I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.

Clarence Darrow

Life, Death, Sarcastic

"The Story of My Life". Book by Clarence Darrow, 1932.

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You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom.

Clarence Darrow

Peace, Life And Love, Freedom

Clarence Darrow (2012). “Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom”, p.140, University of Chicago Press

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The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business.

Clarence Darrow

Trust, Law, Doe

Clarence Darrow (2015). “The Story of My Life”, p.84, Lulu.com

105 Copy quote
True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else.

Clarence Darrow

Memorial Day, Peace, Hate

151 Copy quote
Nothing is so loved by tyrants as obedient subjects.

Clarence Darrow

Tyrants, Subjects, Obedient

48 Copy quote
When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. I'm beginning to believe it.

Clarence Darrow

Funny, Sarcastic, Believe

Quoted in Irving Stone, Clarence Darrow for the Defense (1941)

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When we fully understand the brevity of life, its fleeting joys and unavoidable pains; when we accept the facts that all men and women are approaching an inevitable doom: the consciousness of it should make us more kindly and considerate of each other. This feeling should make men and women use their best efforts to help their fellow travelers on the road, to make the path brighter and easier as we journey on. It should bring a closer kinship, a better understanding, and a deeper sympathy for the wayfarers who must live a common life and die a common death.

Clarence Darrow

Pain, Journey, Men

Clarence Darrow (1995). “Why I Am an Agnostic and Other Essays”

88 Copy quote
To be an effective criminal defense counsel, an attorney must be prepared to be demanding, outrageous, irreverent, blasphemous, a rogue, a renegade, and a hated, isolated, and lonely person - few love a spokesman for the despised and the damned.

Clarence Darrow

Love, Lonely, Age

110 Copy quote
Anyone can spot a lie, unless he is in need of that lie.

Clarence Darrow

Lying, Needs, Spots

45 Copy quote
I am pleading for the future; I am pleading for a time when hatred and cruelty will not control the hearts of men. When we can learn by, reason and judgment and understanding and faith that all life is worth saving, and that mercy is the highest attribute of man.

Clarence Darrow

Heart, Men, Hatred

Closing argument in Leopold-Loeb trial, Chicago, Ill., 22 Aug. 1924

81 Copy quote
I have lived my life, and I have fought my battles, not against the weak and the poor - anybody can do that - but against power, against injustice, against oppression, and I have asked no odds from them, and I never shall.

Clarence Darrow

Odds, Law, Battle

Clarence Darrow (2012). “Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom”, p.497, University of Chicago Press

79 Copy quote
The world is made up for the most part of morons and natural tyrants, sure of themselves, strong in their own opinions, never doubting anything.

Clarence Darrow

Strong, Tyrants, Doubt

28 Copy quote
If you lose the power to laugh, you lose the power to think.

Clarence Darrow

Inspirational, Laughter, Attitude

32 Copy quote
A criminal is someone without the capital to incorporate

Clarence Darrow

Criminals

84 Copy quote
Do you, good people, believe that Adam and Eve were created in the Garden of Eden and that they were forbidden to eat from the tree of knowledge? I do. The church has always been afraid of that tree. It still is afraid of knowledge. Some of you say religion makes people happy. So does laughing gas. So does whiskey. I believe in the brain of man.

Clarence Darrow

Believe, Men, Garden

Clarence Darrow's remarks at a debate with religious leaders in Kansas City, as quoted in a Emanuel Haldeman-Julius' eulogy for Clarence Darrow, 1938.

101 Copy quote
Justice has nothing to do with what goes on in a courtroom; Justice is what comes out of a courtroom

Clarence Darrow

Justice, Goes On, Courtroom

53 Copy quote
There is no such crime as a crime of thought; there are only crimes of action.

Clarence Darrow

Wisdom, Action, Crime

Clarence Darrow (2012). “Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom”, p.16, University of Chicago Press

31 Copy quote
Lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for.

Clarence Darrow

Fighting, Causes, Lost

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As long as the world shall last there will be wrongs, and if no man objected and no man rebelled, those wrongs would last forever.

Clarence Darrow

Inspirational, Courage, Honesty

Clarence Darrow (2012). “Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom”, p.147, University of Chicago Press

55 Copy quote
Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt.

Clarence Darrow

Wisdom, Children, Teaching

28 Copy quote
With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in men, than any other association of men.

Clarence Darrow

Honesty, Character, Men

The Railroad Trainman, November 1909.

29 Copy quote
The efforts of the medical profession in the US to control:...its...job it proposes to monopolize. It has been carrying on a vigorous campaign all over the country against new methods and schools of healing because it wants the business...I have watched this medical profession for a long time and it bears watching.

Clarence Darrow

Country, Jobs, Healing

54 Copy quote
I don't believe in God because I don't believe in Mother Goose.

Clarence Darrow

Death, Mother, Atheist

Speech, Toronto, Canada, 1930

91 Copy quote
We are born and we die; and between these two most important events in our lives more or less time elapses which we have to waste somehow or other. In the end it does not seem to matter much whether we have done so in making money, or practicing law, or reading or playing, or in any other way, as long as we felt we were deriving a maximum of happiness out of our doings.

Clarence Darrow

Reading, Law, Two

36 Copy quote
I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure - that is all that agnosticism means.

Clarence Darrow

Funny, Witty, Powerful

Speech at Scopes trial, Dayton, Tenn., 15 July 1925

63 Copy quote

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Born: April 18, 1857
Died: March 13, 1938
Occupation: Lawyer
Cite this Page: Citation

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