William O. Douglas Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

• The Second Amendment reveals a profound principle of American government - the principle of civilian ascendency over the military.

  William O. Douglas

  Military, Men, America

  24 Copy quote

• It is better, so the Fourth Amendment teaches us, that the guilty sometimes go free than the citizens be subject to easy arrest.

  William O. Douglas

  Liberty, Citizens, Libertarian

  11 Copy quote

• No matter what the legislature may say, a man has the right to make his speech, print his handbill, compose his newspaper, and deliver his sermon without asking anyone's permission. The contrary suggestion is abhorrent to our traditions.

  William O. Douglas

  Men, Abhorrent, Suggestions

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

  15 Copy quote

• Ideas are indeed the most dangerous weapons in the world. Our ideas of freedom are the most powerful political weapons man has ever forged.

  William O. Douglas

  Powerful, Men, Ideas

  William O. Douglas (1954). “An Almanac of Liberty”

  4 Copy quote

• Inanimate objects are sometimes parties to litigation. A ship has a legal personality, a fiction found useful for maritime purposes. The corporation sole - a creature of ecclesiastical law - is an acceptable adversary, and large fortunes ride on its cases... So it should be as respects valleys, alpine meadows, rivers, lakes, estuaries, beaches, ridges, groves of trees, swampland, or even air that feels the destructive pressures of modern technology and modern life.

  William O. Douglas

  Party, Technology, Air

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

  4 Copy quote

• Big Brother in the form of an increasingly powerful government and in an increasingly powerful private sector will pile the records high with reasons why privacy should give way to national security, to law and order, to efficiency of operation, to scientific advancement and the like.

  William O. Douglas

  Brother, Powerful, World Government

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

  53 Copy quote

• The dominant purpose of the First Amendment was to prohibit the widespread practice of government suppression of embarrassing information.

  William O. Douglas

  Government, Practice, Freedom Of Speech

  16 Copy quote

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

  William O. Douglas

  Constitution, Court, Keepers

  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

  7 Copy quote

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

  William O. Douglas

  Atheist, Men, Soul

  10 Copy quote

• The Fifth Amendment is an old friend and a good friend, one of the great landmarks in men's struggle to be free of tyranny, to be decent and civilized.

  William O. Douglas

  Friendship, Struggle, Good Friend

  "An Almanac of Liberty". Book by William O. Douglas, 1954.

  55 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”

  68 Copy quote

• 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.

  56 Copy quote

• Power that controls the economy should be in the hands of elected representatives of the people, not in the hands of an industrial oligarchy.

  William O. Douglas

  Hands, People, Economic Globalization

  "United States v. Columbia Steel Co., 334 U.S. 495". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. June 7, 1948.

  14 Copy quote

• Acceptance by government of a dissident press is a measure of the maturity of a nation.

  William O. Douglas

  Acceptance, Maturity, Government

  William O. Douglas (1954). “An Almanac of Liberty”

  13 Copy quote

• Where suspicion fills the air and holds scholars in line for fear of their jobs, there can be no exercise of the free intellect. Supineness and dogmatism take the place of inquiry. A problem can no longer be pursued to its edges. Fear stalks the classroom. The teacher is no longer a stimulant to adventurous thinking; she becomes instead a pipe line for safe and sound information. A deadening dogma takes the place of free inquiry. Instruction tends to become sterile; pursuit of knowledge is discouraged; discussion often leaves off where it should begin.

  William O. Douglas

  Teacher, Jobs, Fear

  5 Copy quote

• The great and invigorating influences in American life have been the unorthodox: the people who challenge an existing institution or way of life, or say and do things that make people think.

  William O. Douglas

  Thinking, America, People

  23 Copy quote

• What we must remember, however, is that preservation of liberties does not depend on motives. A suppression of liberty has the same effect whether the suppressor be a reformer or an outlaw. The only protection against misguided zeal is constant alertness to infractions of the guarantees of liberty contained in our Constitution. Each surrender of liberty to the demands of the moment makes easier another, larger surrender. . .

  William O. Douglas

  Liberty, Doe, Guarantees

  13 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.

  6 Copy quote

• Security can only be achieved through constant change, through discarding old ideas that have outlived their usefulness and adapting others to current facts.

  William O. Douglas

  Change, Ideas, Facts

  12 Copy quote

• I have the same confidence in the ability of our people to reject noxious literature as I have in their capacity to sort out the true from the false in theology, economics, or any other field.

  William O. Douglas

  People, Literature, Fields

  4 Copy quote

• We need be bold and adventuresome in our thinking in order to survive.

  William O. Douglas

  Thinking, Order, Needs

  "Adler v. Board of Educ. of City of New York, 342 U.S. 485". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. March 3, 1952.

  4 Copy quote

• We deal with a right of privacy older than the Bill of Rights-older than our political parties, older than our school system.

  William O. Douglas

  Party, School, Rights

  Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)

  11 Copy quote

• The most important aspect of freedom of speech is freedom to learn. All education is a continuous dialogue - questions and answers that pursue every problem on the horizon. That is the essence of academic freedom.

  William O. Douglas

  Graduation, Essence, Academic Freedom

  11 Copy quote

• This freedom of movement is the very essence of our free society, setting us apart. Like the right of assembly and the right of association, it often makes all other rights meaningful-knowing, studying, arguing, exploring, conversing, observing and even thinking. Once the right to travel is curtailed, all other rights suffer, just as when curfew or home detention is placed on a person.

  William O. Douglas

  Meaningful, Home, Thinking

  34 Copy quote

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