William O. Douglas

The association promotes a way of life, not causes; a harmony in living, not political faiths; a bilateral loyalty, not commercial or social projects. Yet it is an association for as noble a purpose as any involved in any prior decisions.

The right to revolt has sources deep in our history.

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

We do not sit as a superlegislature to weigh the wisdom of legislation.

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

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

The 5th 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.

We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.

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.

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such a twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air - however slight - lest we become unwitting victims of darkness.

The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people.

Since when have we Americans been expected to bow submissively to authority and speak with awe and reverence to those who represent us?

Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience that hissed yesterday may applaud today, even for the same performance.

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

Marriage is a coming together for better or for worse, hopefully enduring, and intimate to the degree of being sacred.

One who comes to the Court must come to adore, not to protest. That's the new gloss on the 1st Amendment.

It seemed to me that I had barely reached the Court when people were trying to get me off.

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

Absolute discretion is a ruthless master. It is more destructive of freedom than any of mans other inventions.

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

Common sense often makes good law.

The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedoms.

At the constitutional level where we work, 90 percent of any decision is emotional. The rational part of us supplies the reasons for supporting our predilections.

I do not know of any salvation for society except through eccentrics, misfits, dissenters, people who protest.

Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience...that hissed yesterday may applaud today even for the same performance.

The First Amendment makes confidence in the common sense of our people and in the maturity of their judgement the great postulate of our democracy.

There have always been grievances and youth has always been the agitator.

The liberties of none are safe unless the liberties of all are protected.

We who have the final word can speak softly or angrily. We can seek to challenge and annoy, as we need not stay docile and quiet.

Literature should not be suppressed merely because it offends the moral code of the censor.