History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure.
THURGOOD MARSHALLMere access to the courthouse doors does not by itself assure a proper functioning of the adversary process.
More Thurgood Marshall Quotes
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None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody – a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns – bent down and helped us pick up our boots.
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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.
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Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men’s minds.
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None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.
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In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.
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It is now well established that the Constitution protects the right to receive information and ideas.This right to receive information and ideas, regardless of their social worth, is fundamental to our free society.
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Sometimes history takes things into its own hands.
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Some years ago I said in an opinion that if this country is a melting pot, then either the Afro-Americans didn’t get in the pot or he didn’t get melted down.
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It is a historic step toward eliminating the shameful practice of racial discrimination in the selection of juries.
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Today’s Constitution is a realistic document of freedom only because of several corrective amendments. Those amendments speak to a sense of decency and fairness that I and other Blacks cherish.
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The United States has been called the melting pot of the world. But it seems to me that the colored man either missed getting into the pot or he got melted down.
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Mere access to the courthouse doors does not by itself assure a proper functioning of the adversary process.
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I’m the world’s original gradualist. I just think ninety-odd years is gradual enough.
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A man can make what he wants of himself if he truly believes that he must be ready for hard work and many heartbreaks.
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The measure of a country’s greatness is its ability to retain compassion in time of crisis.
THURGOOD MARSHALL






