William O. Douglas Quotes - Page 4

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• The censor is always quick to justify his function in terms that are protective of society. But the First Amendment, written in terms that are absolute, deprives the States of any power to pass on the value, the propriety, or the morality of a particular expression.

  William O. Douglas

  Expression, Freedom Of Speech, Firsts

  "Memoirs v. Massachusetts, 383 U.S. 413". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. March 21, 1966.

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• Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience (in this case, the judge or the jury) that hissed yesterday may applaud today, even for the same performance.

  William O. Douglas

  Yesterday, History, Democracy

  "Kingsley Books, Inc. v. Brown, 354 U.S. 436". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. June 24, 1957.

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• No patent medicine was ever put to wider and more varied use than the Fourteenth Amendment.

  William O. Douglas

  Medicine, Patents, Use

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

  William O. Douglas

  Moral Leadership, Court, Ability

  Time Magazine Interview, November 12, 1973.

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• We have a system which, though far from perfect, is strong with idealism. It gives elbow room for men of all races and all beliefs. It is vital and dynamic. And it works. We have the means of shaping the world in our pattern. If we do, freedom will be assured for all men. The decision is in the hands of this generation. It is a challenge to our political competence. For Western civilization it is the greatest challenge of all time.

  William O. Douglas

  Strong, Mean, Men

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• There is no superior person by constitutional standards. An applicant who is white is entitled to no advantage by reason of that fact, nor is he subject to any disability, no matter what his race or color. Whatever his race, an applicant has a constitutional right to have his application considered on its individual merits.

  William O. Douglas

  Race, Color, White

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• Thus if the First Amendment means anything in this field, it must allow protests even against the moral code that the standard of the day sets for the community. In other words, literature should not be suppressed merely because it offends the moral code of the censor.

  William O. Douglas

  Mean, Community, Literature

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• Tell the FBI that the kidnappers should pick out a judge that Nixon wants back.

  William O. Douglas

  Umpires, History, Judging

  "The Court years, 1939-1975: The Autobiography of William O. Douglas". Book by William O. Douglas, 1980.

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• The critical point is that the Constitution places the right of silence
  beyond the reach of government.

  William O. Douglas

  Government, Silence, Constitution

  "Ullmann v. United States, 350 U.S. 422". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. March 26, 1956.

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• Racial discrimination against a white is as unconstitutional as race discrimination against a black.

  William O. Douglas

  Race, White, Black

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• These unwritten amenities have been in part responsible for giving our people the feeling of independence and self-confidence, the feeling of creativity. These amenities have dignified the right of dissent and have honored the right to be nonconformists and the right to defy submissiveness. They have encouraged lives of high spirits rather than hushed, suffocating silence.

  William O. Douglas

  Creativity, Self Confidence, Government

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• 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

  Home, Police, Mind

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• The conscience of this nation is the Constitution.

  William O. Douglas

  Constitution, Nations, Conscience

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• The First and Fourteenth Amendments say that Congress and the States shall make "no law" which abridges freedom of speech or of the press. In order to sanction a system of censorship I would have to say that "no law" does not mean what it says, that "no law" is qualified to mean "some" laws. I cannot take this step.

  William O. Douglas

  Mean, Order, Law

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• I think that the influence towards suppression of minority views - towards orthodoxy in thinking about public issues - has been more subconscious than unconscious, stemming to a very great extent from the tendency of Americans to conform...not to deviate or depart from an orthodox point of view.

  William O. Douglas

  Thinking, Views, Issues

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• The purpose of the University of Washington cannot be to produce black lawyers for blacks, Polish lawyers for Poles, Jewish lawyers for Jews, Irish lawyers for Irish. It should be to produce good lawyers for Americans, and not to place First Amendment barriers against anyone.

  William O. Douglas

  Black, Firsts, Purpose

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

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• When a man knows how to live amid danger, he is not afraid to die. When he is not afraid to die, he is, strangely, free to live.

  William O. Douglas

  Men, Danger, Not Afraid

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• Hiking a ridge, a meadow, a river bottom, is as healthy a form of exercise as one can get.

  William O. Douglas

  Exercise, Rivers, Hiking

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• Discovery is adventure. There is an eagerness, touched at times with tenseness, as man moves ahead into the unknown. Walking the wilderness is indeed like living. The horizon drops away, bringing new sights, sounds, and smells from the earth. When one moves through the forests, his sense of discovery is quickened. Man is back in the environment from which he emerged to build factories, churches, and schools. He is primitive again, matching his wits against the earth and sky. He is free of the restraints of society and free of its safeguards too.

  William O. Douglas

  Moving, School, Adventure

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• The right to dissent is the only thing that makes life tolerable for a judge of an appellate court... the affairs of government could not be conducted by democratic standards without it.

  William O. Douglas

  Government, Judging, Liberty

  "America Challenged". Book by William O. Douglas, 1960.

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• Once the government can demand of a publisher the names of the purchasers of his publication, the free press as we know it disappears. Then the spectre of a government agent will look over the shoulder of everyone who reads. ... Fear of criticism goes with every person into the bookstall. The subtle, imponderable pressures of the orthodox lay hold. Some will fear to read what is unpopular, what the powers-that-be dislike. ... fear will take the place of freedom in the libraries, book stores, and homes in the land.

  William O. Douglas

  Book, Home, Government

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• The Free Exercise Clause protects the individual from any coercive measure that encourages him toward one faith or creed, discourages him from another, or makes it prudent or desirable for him to select one and embrace it.

  William O. Douglas

  Exercise, Atheism, Prudent

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• The Arctic has a call that is compelling. The distant mountains [of the Brooks Range in Alaska] make one want to go on and on over the next ridge and over the one beyond. The call is that of a wilderness known only to a few...This last American wilderness must remain sacrosanct.

  William O. Douglas

  Alaska, Mountain, Next

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• What a man thinks is no concern of the government.

  William O. Douglas

  Men, Thinking, Government

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• The one governmental agency that has no ambition.

  William O. Douglas

  Ambition, Agency, Law

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

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