“History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure.”

I’m the world’s original gradualist. I just think ninety-odd years is gradual enough.

The First Amendment serves not only the needs of the polity but also those of the human spirit – a spirit that demands self-expression .

The measure of a country’s greatness is its ability to retain compassion in time of crisis.

Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men’s minds.

The death penalty is no more effective a deterrent than life imprisonment. It is also evident that the burden of capital punishment falls upon the poor, the ignorant and the underprivileged members of society.

Ending racial discrimination in jury selection can be accomplished only by eliminating peremptory challenges entirely.

Equal means getting the same thing, at the same time and in the same place.

The Constitution was a product of its times.

Classifications and distinctions based on race or color have no moral or legal validity in our society. They are contrary to our constitution and laws.

What is the quality of your intent?

We must dissent from the fear.

We can always stick together when we are losing, but tend to find means of breaking up when we’re winning.

I cannot accept this invitation for I do not believe that the meaning of the Constitution was forever ‘fixed’ at the Philadelphia Convention… To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start. [Progressive]

Mere access to the courthouse doors does not by itself assure a proper functioning of the adversary process.

Lawlessness is lawlessness. Anarchy is anarchy is anarchy. Neither race nor color nor frustration is an excuse for either lawlessness or anarchy.

The process of democracy is one of change. Our laws are not frozen into immutable form, they are constantly in the process of revision in response to the needs of a changing society.

Even his griefs are a joy long after to one that remembers all that he wrought and endured.

Don’t fear the gods, Don’t worry about death; What is good is easy to get, and What is terrible is easy to endure.

God enters through the wound.

At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.

You and only you know the pain you are willing to endure to achieve what others think is the impossible.

Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow. Nothing endures but change.

Nothing is likely to help a person overcome or endure troubles than the consciousness of having a task in life.

The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppose.