William O. Douglas Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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

  43 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.

  72 Copy quote

• 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

  56 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.

  53 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”

  55 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.

  36 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

  39 Copy quote

• 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

  42 Copy quote

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

  William O. Douglas

  People, Misfits, Salvation

  27 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

  18 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.

  37 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.

  46 Copy quote

• 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.

  43 Copy quote

• Christianity has sufficient inner strength to survive and flourish on its own. It does not need state subsidies, nor state privileges, nor state prestige. The more it obtains state support the greater it curtails human freedom.

  William O. Douglas

  Support, Inner Strength, Atheism

  "The Bible and the Schools". Book by William O. Douglas, 1966.

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  44 Copy quote

• Trees have judicial standing, and probably grass too.

  William O. Douglas

  Tree, Grass, Judicial

  3 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.

  15 Copy quote

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

  William O. Douglas

  Constitution, Court, Keepers

  10 Copy quote

• 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.

  3 Copy quote

• The river, for example, is the living symbol of all the life it sustains or nourishes - fish, aquatic insects, water ouzels, otter, fisher, deer, elk, bear, and all other animals, including man, who are dependent on it or who enjoy it for its sight, its sound, or its life. The river as plaintiff speaks for the ecological unit of life that is part of it.

  William O. Douglas

  Men, Animal, Rivers

  "Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. April 19, 1972.

  31 Copy quote

• The privacy and dignity of our citizens is being whittled away by sometimes imperceptible steps. Taken individually, each step may be of little consequence. But when viewed as a whole, there begins to emerge a society quite unlike any we have seen - a society in which government may intrude into the secret regions of a life.

  William O. Douglas

  Taken, Government, Secret

  "Osborn v. United States, 385 U.S. 323". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. December 12, 1966.

  19 Copy quote

• Man is whole when he is in tune with the winds, the stars, and the hills... Being in tune with the universe is the entire secrets.

  William O. Douglas

  Stars, Men, Wind

  19 Copy quote

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

  William O. Douglas

  Atheist, Men, Soul

  9 Copy quote

• The framers of the constitution knew human nature as well as we do. They too had lived in dangerous days; they too knew the suffocating influence of orthodoxy and standardized thought. They weighed the compulsions for restrained speech and thought against the abuses of liberty. They chose liberty.

  William O. Douglas

  Abuse, Society, Liberty

  33 Copy quote

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

  William O. Douglas

  Upside Down, Socialism, Rich

  9 Copy quote

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