Gerry Spence Quotes

There are only two races (and they are not distinguished by color): those who are free and those who are not.

My intent is to tell the truth as I know it, realizing that what is true for me may be blasphemy for others.

Nothing in the world is as fearsome as a bloody, battered opponent who will never surrender.

Our willingness to openly reveal our feelings in our argument nearly always builds our credibility.

The erosion of a nation's concern for life and for individual rights, has always preceded the intrusion of tyranny.

The people of a nation are enslaved when, together, they are helpless to institute effective change, when the people serve the government more than the government serves them.

The best antidote for crime is justice. The irony we often fail to appreciate is that the more justice people enjoy, the fewer crimes they commit. Crime is the natural offspring of an unjust society.

To freely bloom - that is my definition of success.

The gift of self cannot be given to us. It is an incomparable gift that has already been given. We have possessed it from the beginning.

Faced with the pain of freedom, man begs for his shackles.

When we acknowledge the kingdom of the self, we will no longer accept slavery either for ourselves or for others, no matter how it is disguised.

What the insurance companies have done is to reverse the business so that the public at large insures the insurance companies.

How much of our lives could we buy back if we cherished our lives instead of our trinkets?

The function of the law is not to provide justice or to preserve freedom. The function of the law is to keep those who hold power, in power.

Skepticism, not cleanliness, is next to godliness. Skepticism is the father of freedom. It is like the pry that holds open the door for truth to slip in.

The way people move is their autobiography in motion.

When any system has for its goal the advancement of the system over the betterment of its individual members, such a system is embedded in slavery.

Love is how we feel toward those who show us that which is lovable about ourselves.

I am not as concerned about choosing the right words as I am in letting the words flow naturally.

To freely bloom that is my definition of success. The question then is, How does arguing with our children advance our goal that our children freely bloom.

I dream of a time when the people will retake their airways and use them to achieve a voice to rediscover democracy, and to see the divine potential of man.

It is an anomaly that we can split the atom, but we are nearly powerless to persuade each other to embrace justice.

Words that do not create images should be discarded.

The Internet...has become the voice of the people in the first genuine experiment in democracy yet conducted in America. It stands ready to serve every facet, every faction.

The art of arguing is the art of living. We argue because we must, because life emends it, because, in the end, life itself is but an argument.

Credibility is what it is ALL about.

To bargain freedom for security is the devil's bargain. Having made the bargain, one enjoys neither freedom nor security.

Arguments do not erase prejudice any more than arguments erase scars, whether psychological or physical.

We are afraid. But fear confirms life and identifies the source of every successful argument - ourselves.

We could advance the human race enormously if we but learned to communicate honestly with our neighbors.

Is there anyone I wouldn't take as a client? Well, I'd never represent a banker.

Each of us has been endowed with the perfect power to be free. Slavery is a state of mind that fails to acknowledge the slave's own power.

The stain of prejudice is often indelible.

Government [is] operated by deeply embedded, hopelessly entangled bureaus where nothing is accomplished because the function of the bureau is to intercept every living idea and smother it.

The less of one's life one must exchange for money, the more freedom one may enjoy.

When you are faced with prejudice, logic and justice are impotent. Still, we may have an obligation to argue directly into the face of the prejudice, even though there is no chance to win.

I love my life and I am so blessed.

Prejudice locks the mind. Nothing can enter. Nothing true can escape.

Without argument the species would parish.

In any nation in which people's rights have been subordinated to the rights of the few, in any totalitarian nation, the first institution to be dismantled is the jury. I was, I am, afraid.

Everyone wants to argue. Everyone does. Everyone needs to.

Successful argument is a communication between the acknowledged authority of both parties to the argument.

Money in doses disproportionate to our needs enslaves.

To accept capitalism and Free Enterprise as articles of faith without agreeing that we must be free to consider whether what is offered is free and freeing is itself enslavement.

As we drive down the freeways, we see the new cars, but not the massive new-car loans that enslave their drivers to the banks.

We are defined by how we use our power.

There are innumerable ways to murder a person, but the most subtle and pernicious of these is to mutilate the soul of the innocent by denying or downgrading their uniqueness and their beauty.