Quotes from Louis D. Brandeis

We are not won by arguments that we can analyze, but by tone and temper; by the manner, which is the man himself.

We shall have lost something vital and beyond price on the day when the state denies us the right to resort to force.

If we would guide by the light of reason we must let our minds be bold.

Neutrality is at times a graver sin than belligerence.

Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.

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.

It is not wealth, it is not station, it is not social standing and ambition which can make us worthy of the Jewish name, of the Jewish heritage. To be worthy of them, we must live up to and with them. We must regard ourselves their custodians.

Behind every argument is somebody's ignorance. Rediscover the foundation of truth and the purpose and causes of dispute immediately disappear.

There are better mothers than disaster. A native land is the best of all mothers. We American Jews have a native land we love. But it is even better to have a native land who loves us.

The logic of words should yield to the logic of realities.

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.

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.

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.

Crime is contagious....if the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law.

The most important office is that of private citizen.

We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.

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.

It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.

The makers of our Constitution . . . conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone - the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.

The right most valued by all civilized men is the right to be left alone.

The old idea of a good bargain was a transaction in which one man got the better of another. The new idea of a good contract is a transaction which is good for both parties to it.

Those who won our independence believed that the final end of the state was to make men free to develop their faculties.

Men long for an afterlife in which there apparently is nothing to do but delight in heaven's wonders.

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.