William O. Douglas Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• 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

  21 Copy quote

• We are rapidly entering the age of no privacy, where everyone is open to surveillance at all times; where there are no secrets from government.

  William O. Douglas

  Law, Government, Secret

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

  69 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.

  35 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

  34 Copy quote

• 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

• 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.

  21 Copy quote

• Trees have judicial standing, and probably grass too.

  William O. Douglas

  Tree, Grass, Judicial

  4 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

• 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

• 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

• I would rather create a precedent than find one.

  William O. Douglas

  Law, Precedent

  8 Copy quote

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

  William O. Douglas

  Upside Down, Socialism, Rich

  10 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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.

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  6 Copy quote

• We must realize that today's establishment is the new George III. Whether it will continue to adhere to his tactics, we do not know. If it does, the redress, honored in tradition, is also revolution.

  William O. Douglas

  Doe, Tactics, Today

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

  7 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

• 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 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

Page 2 of 6

First

← Prev

1

2

3

4

5

6

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin