Louis D. Brandeis Quotes
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Neutrality is at times a graver sin than belligerence.
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Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent.
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Behind every argument is someone's ignorance.
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I abhor averages. I like the individual case. A man may have six meals one day and none the next, making an average of three meals per day, but that is not a good way to live.
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Fear of serious injury alone cannot justify oppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.
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If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
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If you would only recognize that life is hard, things would be so much easier for you.
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Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.
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What is Americanization? It manifests itself, in a superficial way, when the immigrant adopts the clothes, the manners and the customs generally prevailing here. Far more important is the manifestation presented when he substitutes for his mother tongue the English language as the common medium of speech.
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We are not won by arguments that we can analyze, but by tone and temper; by the manner, which is the man himself.
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What are the American ideals? They are the development of the individual for his own and the common good; the development of the individual through liberty; and the attainment of the common good through democracy and social justice.
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During most of my life, my contact with Jews and Judaism was slight. I gave little thought to their problems, save in asking myself, from time to time, whether we were showing by our lives due appreciation of the opportunities which this hospitable country affords. My approach to Zionism was through Americanism.
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In the frank expression of conflicting opinions lies the greatest promise of wisdom in governmental action.
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The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.
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The logic of words should yield to the logic of realities.
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The world presents enough problems if you believe it to be a world of law and order; do not add to them by believing it to be a world of miracles.
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Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.
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However great his outward conformity, the immigrant is not Americanized unless his interests and affections have become deeply rooted here. And we properly demand of the immigrant even more than this. He must be brought into complete harmony with our ideals and aspirations and cooperate with us for their attainment.
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The difference between a nation and a nationality is clear, but it is not always observed. Likeness between members is the essence of nationality, but the members of a nation may be very different. A nation may be composed of many nationalities, as some of the most successful nations are.
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America has believed that in differentiation, not in uniformity, lies the path of progress. It acted on this belief; it has advanced human happiness, and it has prospered.
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Democracy rests upon two pillars: one, the principle that all men are equally entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and the other, the conviction that such equal opportunity will most advance civilization.
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Organisation can never be a substitute for initiative and for judgement.
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Those who won our independence... valued liberty as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.
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There are no shortcuts in evolution.