Behind every argument is someone's ignorance.

Nearly all legislation involves a weighing of public needs as against private desires; and likewise a weighing of relative social values.

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.

If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.

The most important political office is that of the private citizen.

Fear of serious injury alone cannot justify oppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.

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

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.

There are no shortcuts in evolution.