William O. Douglas Quotes - Page 4

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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.

  24 Copy quote

• 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.

  7 Copy quote

• The day should come when all of the forms of life... will stand before the court - the pileated woodpecker as well as the coyote and bear, the lemmings as well as the trout in the streams.

  William O. Douglas

  Animal, Lemmings, Woodpeckers

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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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• 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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• 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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• Man is about to be an automaton; he is identifiable only in the computer. As a person of worth and creativity, as a being with an infinite potential, he retreats and battles the forces that make him inhuman. The dissent we witness is a reaffirmation of faith in man; it is protest against living under rules and prejudices and attitudes that produce the extremes of wealth and poverty and that make us dedicated to the destruction of people through arms, bombs, and gases, and that prepare us to think alike and be submissive objects for the regime of the computer.

  William O. Douglas

  Attitude, Creativity, Men

  "Points of Rebellion". Book by William O. Douglas, 1970.

  39 Copy quote

• The thrill of tramping alone and unafraid through a wilderness of lakes, creeks, alpine meadows, and glaciers is not known to many. A civilization can be built around the machine but it is doubtful that a meaningful life can be produced by it.... When man worships at the feet of avalas creations. When he feels the wind blowing through him on a high peak or sleeps under a closely matted white bark pine in an exposed basin, he is apt to find his relationship to the universe.

  William O. Douglas

  Meaningful, Sleep, Journey

  11 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  9 Copy quote

• 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.

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  15 Copy quote

• Among the liberties of citizens that are guaranteed are ... the right to believe what one chooses, the right to differ from his neighbor, the right to pick and choose the political philosophy he likes best, the right to associate with whomever he chooses, the right to join groups he prefers.

  William O. Douglas

  Philosophy, Believe, Political

  7 Copy quote

• The law is not a series of calculating machines where answers come tumbling out when the right levers are pushed.

  William O. Douglas

  Law, Machines, Tumbling

  "The Dissent: A Safeguard of Democracy". William O. Douglas, "Journal of the American Judicature Society", Volume 32, 1948.

  7 Copy quote

• 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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• But our society - unlike most in the world - presupposes that freedom and liberty are in a frame of reference that makes the individual, not government, the keeper of his tastes, beliefs, and ideas. That is the philosophy of the First Amendment; and it is this article of faith that sets us apart from most nations in the world.

  William O. Douglas

  Philosophy, Government, Ideas

  "Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton, 413 U.S. 49". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. June 21, 1973.

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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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• 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

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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

  4 Copy quote

• Violence has no constitutional sanction; and every government from the beginning has moved against it. But where grievances pile high and most of the elected spokesmen represent the Establishment, violence may be the only effective response.

  William O. Douglas

  Government, May, Violence

  "Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations", ("Points of Rebellion"), pp. 88-89, 1989.

  7 Copy quote

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