Quotes from Clarence Darrow

To think is to differ.

We know life is futile. A man who considers that his life is of very wonderful importance is awfully close to a padded cell.

this is life and all there is of life; to play the game, to play the cards we get; play them uncomplainingly and play them to the end. the playing of the game is the foregetting of self and play it bravely to the end

Sympathy is the child of imagination

We are born and we die; and between these two most important events in our lives more or less time elapses which we have to waste somehow or other. In the end it does not seem to matter much whether we have done so in making money, or practicing law, or reading or playing, or in any other way, as long as we felt we were deriving a maximum of happiness out of our doings.

There are a lot of myths which make the human race cruel and barbarous and unkind. Good and Evil, Sin and Crime, Free Will and the like delusions made to excuse God for damning men and to excuse men for crucifying each other.

Some false representations contravene the law; some do not. ... The sensibilities of no two men are the same. Some would refuse to sell property without carefully explaining all about its merits and defects, and putting themselves in the purchasers' place and inquiring if he himself would buy under the circumstances. But such men never would be prosperous merchants.

I believe that religion is the belief in future life and in God. I don't believe in either. I don't believe in God as I don't believe in Mother Goose.

Ignorance and fanaticism is ever busy and needs feeding. Always it is feeding and gloating for more.

Some false representations contravene the law; some do not. The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business, and, besides, could not be done. The line between honesty and dishonesty is a narrow, shifting one and usually lets those get by that are the most subtle and already have more than they can use.

The first half of our lives are ruined by our parents and the second half by our children.

The love of nature comes with maturing years and is one of the few compensations for growing old.

Money has been the most serious handicap that we have ever met. There are times when poverty is fortunate

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I'm beginning to believe it.

it does not make much difference what kind of a law we make as long as the judges tell us what it means.

Your book, ' The Tyranny of God ,' is well done. It is a very clear statement of the question, bold and true beyond dispute. I am glad that you wrote it. It is as plain as the multiplication table, which doesn't mean that everyone will believe it. I thank you for writing it. I wish I were the author. { Preface to 'The Tyranny of God by Joseph Lewis }

When they want a working man for anything excepting work they want him for conspiracy.

We are marching backwards to the glorious age of the sixteenth century when bigots lighted fagots to burn men who dared to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and culture to the human mind.

Common experience shows how much rarer is moral courage than physical bravery. A thousand men will march to the mouth of the cannon where one man will dare espouse an unpopular cause.

No law was ever made by the people; they are made for the people

Some of you say religion makes people happy. So does laughing gas. So does whiskey. I believe in the brain of man. I'm not worried about my soul.

One of the bravest, grandest champions of human liberty the world has ever seen. {Darrow on the great Robert Ingersoll }

The first great cause of crime is poverty, and we will never cure crime until we get rid of poverty.

If every man who passed an unjust judgment on his fellow should be condemned, how many judges would be found so vain and foolish as to review and condemn their Maker's work?