William O. Douglas Quotes

Quotes about:

• The Constitution and the Bill of Rights we designed to get the government off the backs of the people -- all the people. Those great documents guarantee to us all the rights to personal and spiritual self-fulfillment. But that guarantee is not self-executing. As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such a twilight that we all must be most aware of the change in the air -- however slight -- lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.

  William O. Douglas

  Spiritual, Twilight, Rights

  53 Copy quote

• The truth is that a vast restructuring of our society is needed if remedies are to become available to the average person. Without that restructuring the good will that holds society together will be slowly dissipated... It is that sense of futility which permeates the present series of protests and dissents. Where there is a persistent sense of futility, there is violence; and that is where we are today.

  William O. Douglas

  Average, Together, Our Society

  WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS (1970). “POINTS OF REBELLION”

  64 Copy quote

• As night-fall does not come at once, neither does oppression...It is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air - however slight - lest we become victims of the darkness.

  William O. Douglas

  Fall, Twilight, Night

  40 Copy quote

• The liberties of none are safe unless the liberties of all are protected.

  William O. Douglas

  Freedom, Atheism, Liberty

  "A Living Bill of Rights". Book by William O. Douglas, 1961.

  47 Copy quote

• To be whole and harmonious, man must also know the music of the beaches and the woods. He must find the thing of which he is only an infinitesimal part and nurture it and love it, if he is to live.

  William O. Douglas

  Beach, Nature, Journey

  WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS (1960). “My Wilderness THE PACIFIC WEST”

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• Those in power are blind devotees to private enterprise. They accept that degree of socialism implicit in the vast subsidies to the military-industrial-complex, but not that type of socialism which maintains public projects for the disemployed and the unemployed alike.

  William O. Douglas

  Military, Subsidies, Degrees

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

  William O. Douglas

  People, Misfits, Salvation

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• Those in power need checks and restraints lest they come to identify the common good for their own tastes and desires, and their continuation in office as essential to the preservation of the nation.

  William O. Douglas

  Power, Office, Desire

  37 Copy quote

• 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

  People, Liberty, Groups

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• When a legislature undertakes to proscribe the exercise of a citizen's constitutional right to free speech, it acts lawlessly; and the citizen can take matters into his own hands and proceed on the basis that such a law is no law at all.

  William O. Douglas

  Exercise, Rights, Hands

  "Poulos v. New Hampshire, 345 U.S. 395". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. April 27, 1953.

  40 Copy quote

• Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.

  William O. Douglas

  Teaching, Rights In America, Political Revolution

  "The One Un-American Act". William O. Douglas' speech to the Author's Guild Council in New York on receiving the 1951 Lauterbach Award, December 3, 1952.

  62 Copy quote

• 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

  Fear, History, Bows

  "Colten v. Kentucky, 407 U.S. 104". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. June 12, 1972.

  42 Copy quote

• I learned early that the richness of life is found in adventure. Adventure calls on all the faculties of mind and spirit. It develops self-reliance and independence. Life then teems with excitement. But man is not ready for adventure unless he is rid of fear. For fear confines him and limits his scope. He stays tethered by strings of doubt and indecision and has only a small and narrow world to explore.

  William O. Douglas

  Adventure, Men, Richness Of Life

  36 Copy quote

• The way to combat noxious ideas is with other ideas. The way to combat falsehoods is with truth.

  William O. Douglas

  Ideas, Way, Combat

  Interview with Mike Wallace, November 4, 1958.

  34 Copy quote

• A function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it invites a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have profound unsettling effects as it passes for acceptance of an idea.

  William O. Douglas

  Acceptance, Ideas, Government

  "Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 U.S. 1". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. May 16, 1949.

  33 Copy quote

• The Constitution favors no racial group - no political or social group.

  William O. Douglas

  Political, Groups, Favors

  "Uphaus v. Wyman, 364 U.S. 388". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. November 14, 1960.

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• Only when there is a wilderness can man harmonize his inner being with the wavelengths of the earth. When the earth, its products, its creatures, become his concern, man is caught up in a cause greater than his own life and more meaningful. Only when man loses himself in an endeavor of that magnitude does he walk and live with humanity and reverence.

  William O. Douglas

  Meaningful, Men, Humanity

  41 Copy quote

• Our upside down welfare state is socialism for the rich, free enterprise for the poor.

  William O. Douglas

  Upside Down, Socialism, Rich

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• My faith is that the only soul a man must save is his own.

  William O. Douglas

  Atheist, Men, Soul

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• The struggle is always between the individual and his sacred right to express himself and the power structure that seeks conformity, suppression, and obedience.

  William O. Douglas

  Struggle, Power, Sacred

  "Go East, Young Man: The Autobiography of William O. Douglas". Book by William O. Douglas, March 12, 1974.

  0 Copy quote

• The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom.

  William O. Douglas

  Freedom, Liberty, Libertarian

  "Public Utilities Commission v. Pollak, 343 U.S. 451". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. May 26, 1952.

  11 Copy quote

• The challenge to our liberties comes frequently not from those who consciously seek to destroy our system of government, but from men of goodwill - good men who allow their proper concerns to blind them to the fact that what they propose to accomplish involves an impairment of liberty.

  William O. Douglas

  Men, Challenges, Good Man

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• If discrimination based on race is constitutionally permissible when those who hold the reins can come up with "compelling" reasons to justify it, then constitutional guarantees acquire an accordion-like quality.

  William O. Douglas

  Compelling Reason, Race, Quality

  "DeFunis v. Odegaard, 416 U.S. 312". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. April 23, 1974.

  3 Copy quote

• The court is really the keeper of the conscience, and the conscience is the Constitution.

  William O. Douglas

  Constitution, Court, Keepers

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• Any test that turns on what is offensive to the community's standards is too loose, too capricious, too destructive of freedom of expression to be squared with the First Amendment. Under that test, juries can censor, suppress, and punish what they don't like, provided the matter relates to "sexual impurity" or has a tendency "to excite lustful thoughts." This is community censorship in one of its worst forms. It creates a regime where, in the battle between the literati and the Philistines, the Philistines are certain to win.

  William O. Douglas

  Winning, Expression, Community

  "Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. June 24, 1957.

  52 Copy quote

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