Quotable Quotes (32 page)

 

A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

—
D
WIGHT
D
.
E
ISENHOWER

 

It is a seldom proferred argument as to the advantages of a free press that it has a major function in keeping the government itself informed as to what the government is doing.

—
W
ALTER
C
RONKITE

 

A free press can be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom a press will never be anything but bad.

—
A
LBERT
C
AMUS

 

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.

—
T
HOMAS
J
EFFERSON

 

Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself.

—
P
OTTER
S
TEWART

 

Every time we liberate a woman, we liberate a man.

—
M
ARGARET
M
EAD

 

No man is free who is not master of himself.

—
E
PICTETUS

 

No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother.

—
M
ARGARET
S
ANGER

 

Freedom always carries a burden of proof, always throws us back on ourselves.

—
S
HELBY
S
TEELE

The Content of Our Character

 

Patriotism is not so much protecting the land of our fathers as preserving the land of our children.

—
J
OSÉ
O
RTEGA Y
G
ASSET

 

If everything would be permitted to me, I would feel lost in this abyss of freedom.

—
I
GOR
S
TRAVINSKY

 

Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.

—
M
OSHE
D
AYAN

 

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

—
T
HOMAS
J
EFFERSON

 

We are in bondage to the law in order that we may be free.

—
C
ICERO

 

To live anywhere in the world today and be against equality because of race or color is like living in Alaska and being against snow.

—
W
ILLIAM
F
AULKNER

Essays, Speeches and Public Letters

 

The defect of equality is that we desire it only with our superiors.

—
H
ENRY
B
ECQUE

 

It is often easier to become outraged by injustice half a world away than by oppression and discrimination half a block from home.

—
C
ARL
T
.
R
OWAN

 

T
O PREVENT INJUSTICE 
. . .

 

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.

—
E
LIE
W
IESEL

 

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.

—
R
EV.
M
ARTIN
L
UTHER
K
ING
J
R.

Stride Toward Freedom

 

There is no happiness for people at the expense of other people.

—
A
NWAR EL-
S
ADAT

 

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

—
R
EV.
M
ARTIN
L
UTHER
K
ING
J
R.

 

Equal rights for the sexes will be achieved only when mediocre women occupy high positions.

—
F
RANÇOISE
G
IROUD

 

To do injustice is more disgraceful than to suffer it.

—
P
LATO

 

A great many people in this country are worried about law-and-order. And a great many people are worried about justice. But one thing is certain: you cannot have either until you have both.

—
R
AMSEY
C
LARK

 

What is morally wrong cannot be politically right.

—
W
ILLIAM
G
LADSTONE

 

In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.

—
T
HURGOOD
M
ARSHALL

 

As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might.

—
M
ARIAN
A
NDERSON

 

One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him.

—
B
OOKER
T
.
W
ASHINGTON

 

Justice may be blind, but she has very sophisticated listening devices.

—
E
DGAR
A
RGO

in
Funny Times

 

Justice is the insurance we have on our lives, and obedience is the premium we pay for it.

—
W
ILLIAM
P
ENN

 

A minority group has “arrived” only when it has the right to produce some fools and scoundrels without the entire group paying for it.

—
C
ARL
T
.
R
OWAN

 

We are not bitter, not because we have forgiven but because there is so much to be done that we cannot afford to waste valuable time and resources on anger.

—
G
OVAN
M
BEKI

Johannesburg Weekly Mail
(South Africa)

 

Efficiency can never be substituted for due process. Is not a dictatorship the more “efficient” form of government?

—
T
HURGOOD
M
ARSHALL

 

It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.

—
V
OLTAIRE

 

Most lawyers who win a case advise their clients that “we have won” and, when justice has frowned upon their cause, that “you have lost.”

—
L
OUIS
N
IZER

 

Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice.

—
H
.
L
.
M
ENCKEN

Prejudices

 

That old law about “an eye for an eye” leaves everybody blind.

—
R
EV.
M
ARTIN
L
UTHER
K
ING
J
R.

Stride Toward Freedom

 

I would uphold the law if for no other reason but to protect myself.

—
T
HOMAS
M
ORE

 

I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis upon the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.

—
C
ALVIN
C
OOLIDGE

 

The ultimate solution to the race problem lies in the willingness of men to obey the unenforceable.

—
R
EV.
M
ARTIN
L
UTHER
K
ING
J
R.

 

The worst form of injustice is pretended justice.

—
P
LATO

 

T
HE REAL BEAUTY OF DEMOCRACY 
. . .

 

The real beauty of democracy is that the average man believes he is above average.

—
M
ORRIE
B
RICKMAN

 

Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.

—
R
EINHOLD
N
IEBUHR

 

Democracy's real test lies in its respect for minority opinion.

—
E
LLERY
S
EDGWICK

in
Jersey Journal

 

The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.

—
R
ALPH
W
.
S
OCKMAN

 

Consensus means that lots of people say collectively what nobody believes individually.

—
A
BBA
E
BAN

in
Montreal Gazette

 

Democracy without morality is impossible.

—
J
ACK
K
EMP

 

Democracy does not guarantee equality, only equality of opportunity.

—
I
RVING
K
RISTOL

 

Democracy cannot survive without the guidance of a creative minority.

—
H
ARLAN
F
.
S
TONE

 

One has the right to be wrong in a democracy.

—
C
LAUDE
P
EPPER

 

Democracy is a small hard core of common agreement, surrounded by a rich variety of individual differences.

—
J
AMES
B
.
C
ONANT

 

Our political institutions work remarkably well. They are designed to clang against each other. The noise is democracy at work.

—Michael Novak

 

I like the noise of democracy.

—
J
AMES
B
UCHANAN

 

Democracy, like any noncoercive relationship, rests on a shared understanding of limits.

—
E
LIZABETH
D
REW

Washington Journal: The Events of 1973–1974

 

Democracy means that if the doorbell rings in the early hours, it is likely to be the milkman.

—
W
INSTON
C
HURCHILL

 

Democracy is not a matter of sentiment, but of foresight. Any system that doesn't take the long run into account will burn itself out in the short run.

—
C
HARLES
Y
OST

 

I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it.

—
A
LEXANDER
W
OOLLCOTT

 

People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote—a very different thing.

—
W
ALTER
H
.
J
UDD

 

Democracy, like love, can survive any attack—save neglect and indifference.

—
P
AUL
S
WEENEY

 

There can be no daily democracy without daily citizenship.

—
R
ALPH
N
ADER

 

Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be.

—
S
YDNEY
J
.
H
ARRIS

 

Every private citizen has a public responsibility.

—
M
YRA
J
ANCO
D
ANIELS

in
Newsweek

 

We will all be better citizens when voting records of our Congressmen are followed as carefully as scores of pro-football games.

—
L
OU
E
RICKSON

in
Atlanta Journal

 

The most important political office is that of private citizen.

—
L
OUIS
B
RANDEIS

 

Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.

—
H
ARRY
E
MERSON
F
OSDICK

 

Democracy is not a mathematical deduction proved once and for all time. Democracy is a just faith fervently held, a commitment to be tested again and again in the fiery furnace of history.

—
J
ACK
K
EMP

 

Democracy may not prove in the long run to be as efficient as other forms of government, but it has one saving grace: it allows us to know and say that it isn't.