William O. Douglas Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old William O. Douglas quotes, William O. Douglas sayings, and William O. Douglas proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.'

Absolute discretion is a ruthless master. It is more destructive of freedom than any of man's other inventions. William O. Douglas
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. William O. Douglas
We need to be bold and adventurous in our thinking in order to survive. William O. Douglas
The court is really the keeper of the conscience, and the conscience is the Constitution. William O. Douglas
I do not know of any salvation for society except through eccentrics, misfits, dissenters, people who protest. William O. Douglas
The dominant purpose of the First Amendment was to prohibit the widespread practice of government suppression of embarrassing information. William O. Douglas
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. William O. Douglas
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
Big Brother in the form of an increasingly powerful government and in an increasingly powerful private sector will pile the records high with reasons why privacy should give way to national security, to law and order [...] and the like. William O. Douglas
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
Our upside down welfare state is socialism for the rich, free enterprise for the poor. William O. Douglas
God made the wilderness for man and all other creatures to use, to adore, but not to destroy. William O. Douglas
Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us. William O. Douglas
Literature should not be suppressed merely because it offends the moral code of the censor. William O. Douglas
We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being. William O. Douglas