As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there’s a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.
William O. Douglas Quotes
Ignorance and iliteracy are obviously not synonymous; even illiterate masses can cast their ballots with intelligence, once they are informed.
Absolute discretion is a ruthless master. It is more destructive of freedom than any of man’s other inventions.
There is no constitutional right for any race to be preferred… If discrimination based on race is constitutionally permissible when those who hold the reins can come up with compelling” reasons to justify it, then constitutional guarantees acquire accordion-like quality.
Security can only be achieved through constant change, through discarding old ideas that have outlived their usefulness and adapting others to current facts.
The idea of using censors to bar thoughts of sex is dangerous. A person without sex thoughts is abnormal.
Any test that turns on what is offensive to the community’s standards is too loose, too capricious, too destructive of freedom of expression to be squared with the First Amendment. Under that test, juries can censor, suppress, and punish what they don’t like, provided the matter relates to “sexual impurity” or has a tendency “to […]
Literature should not be suppressed merely because it offends the moral code of the censor.
One aspect of modern life which has gone far to stifle men is the rapid growth of tremendous corporations. Enormous spiritual sacrifices are made in the transformation of shopkeepers into employees… The disappearance of free enterprise has led to a submergence of the individual in the impersonal corporation in much the same manner as he […]
The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom.
