All quotes

One's beliefs have long been thought to be sanctuaries which government could not invade.

The quality of advocacy turns on the depth of the conviction; and government has no power to invade that sanctuary of belief and conscience.

Free speech has occupied an exalted position because of the high service it has given our society.

Free speech--the glory of our system of government--should not be sacrificed on anything less than plain and objective proof of danger that the evil advocated is imminent.

Otherwise, free speech which is the strength of the Nation will be the cause of its destruction.

The right to speak freely and to promote diversity of ideas and programs is therefore one of the chief distinctions that sets us apart from totalitarian regimes.

The vitality of civil and political institutions in our society depends on free discussion.

Our duty is to cleanse, to reconsider, to restore, to correct the evil without impairing the good, to purify and humanize every process of our common life without weakening or sentimentalizing it.

The first duty of law is to keep sound the society it serves.

The great Government we loved has too often been made use of for private and selfish purposes, and those who used it had forgotten the people.

Only it seems to me a grievous error in a ruler to quarrel with all his subjects at once.

When the interests of mankind are at stake, they will obey with joy the man whom they believe to be wiser than themselves.

was it not obvious that flocks and herds were more ready to obey their keepers than men their rulers

As indispensable to the preservation of our system of self-government, the independence of the representatives of the States and the people is guaranteed by the Constitution, and they owe no responsibility to any human power but their constituents.

By holding the representative responsible only to the people, and exempting him from all other influences, we elevate the character of the constituent and quicken his sense of responsibility to his country.

I view it as an extreme measure, to be resorted to only in extraordinary cases, as where it may become necessary to defend the executive against the encroachments of the legislative power or to prevent hasty and inconsiderate or unconstitutional legislation.

The Executive has authority to recommend (not to dictate) measures to Congress.

The perfect man employs his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing: it refuses nothing. It receives, but does not keep.

A person is idle because his thoughts dwell habitually on the instant pleasures of idleness.

My aim is to show that only an inappreciable fraction of our ordered and sustained efforts is given to the business of actual living, as distinguished from the preliminaries to living.

Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.

Powerful people maneuver for position and worry endlessly about who is in and who is out, who is up and who is down, forgetting those people whose toil and sweat sends us here and pays our way.

Who does not see from all this that man has gone astray, that he has fallen from his place, that he seeks it with disquiet, that he cannot regain it?

To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.

To not only take risks, but to be open to life. To accept new views and to be open to new opinions.