Quotes from William O. Douglas

Tell the FBI that the kidnappers should pick out a judge that Nixon wants back.

Literature should not be suppressed merely because it offends the moral code of the censor.

What a man thinks is no concern of the government.

Absolute discretion is a ruthless master. It is more destructive of freedom than any of man's other inventions.

To be whole and harmonious, man must also know the music of the beaches and the woods. He must find the thing of which he is only an infinitesimal part and nurture it and love it, if he is to live.

The free state offers what a police state denies - the privacy of the home, the dignity and peace of mind of the individual.

Security can only be achieved through constant change through discarding old ideas that have outlived their usefulness and adapting others to current facts.

Those in power need checks and restraints lest they come to identify the common good for their own tastes and desires, and their continuation in office as essential to the preservation of the nation.

The dominant purpose of the First Amendment was to prohibit the widespread practice of government suppression of embarrassing information.

Acceptance by government of a dissident press is a measure of the maturity of a nation.

The critical point is that the Constitution places the right of silence beyond the reach of government.

Since when have we Americans been expected to bow submissively to authority and speak with awe and reverence to those who represent us?

One who comes to the Court must come to adore, not to protest. That's the new gloss on the First Amendment.

I hope to be remembered as someone who made the earth a little more beautiful.

Power that controls the economy should be in the hands of elected representatives of the people, not in the hands of an industrial oligarchy.

The struggle is always between the individual and his sacred right to express himself and the power structure that seeks conformity, suppression, and obedience.

The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people.

The Fifth Amendment is an old friend and a good friend. It is one of the great landmarks in man's struggle to be free of tyranny, to be decent and civilized.

Marriage is a coming together for better or for worse, hopefully enduring, and intimate to the degree of being sacred.

Tell the FBI that the kidnappers should pick out a judge that Nixon wants back.

The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedoms.

We do not sit as a superlegislature to weigh the wisdom of legislation.

One who comes to the Court must come to adore, not to protest. That's the new gloss on the 1st Amendment.

Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience that hissed yesterday may applaud today, even for the same performance.