Louis D. Brandeis Quotes

We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.

The most important office, and the one which all of us can and should fill, is that of private citizen.

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

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.

The only title in our democracy superior to that of President is the title of citizen.

If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.

It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.

Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.

The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people.

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

Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.

In the frank expression of conflicting opinions lies the greatest promise of wisdom in governmental action.

The makers of our Constitution . . . conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone - the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.

Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent.

The right most valued by all civilized men is the right to be left alone.

In a democracy, the most important office is the office of citizen

There is a spark of idealism within every individual which can be fanned into flame and bring forth extraordinary results.

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.

Neutrality is at times a graver sin than belligerence.

Crime is contagious....if the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law.

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.

Behind every argument is somebody's ignorance. Rediscover the foundation of truth and the purpose and causes of dispute immediately disappear.

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.

Those who won our independence... valued liberty as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.

There are no shortcuts in evolution.

There is no great writing, only great rewriting.

The old idea of a good bargain was a transaction in which one man got the better of another. The new idea of a good contract is a transaction which is good for both parties to it.

The best of wages will not compensate for excessively long working hours which undermine heath.

I used to oppose women's suffrage and I've come to support it because these women have convinced me that we need full gender equality for full democratic participation.

No one can really pull you up very high - you lose your grip on the rope. But on your own two feet you can climb mountains.

Those who won our independence by revolution were not cowards. They did not fear political change. They did not exalt order at the cost of liberty.

Behind every argument is someone's ignorance.

Strong, responsible unions are essential to industrial fair play. Without them the labor bargain is wholly one-sided.

If we would guide by the light of reason we must let our minds be bold.

Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly.

Organisation can never be a substitute for initiative and for judgement.

There is no good writing; there is only good rewriting.

The most important thing we do is not doing.

Men long for an afterlife in which there apparently is nothing to do but delight in heaven's wonders.

The world presents enough problems if you believe it to be a world of law and order; do not add to them by believing it to be a world of miracles.

The logic of words should yield to the logic of realities.

Those who won our independence believed that the final end of the state was to make men free to develop their faculties.

People fear witches, and burn women.

In differentiation, not in uniformity, lies the path of progress.

History is not life, but since only life makes history, the union of the two is obvious.

Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases.

We shall have lost something vital and beyond price on the day when the state denies us the right to resort to force.

The general rule of law is, that the noblest of human productions knowledge, truths ascertained, conceptions and ideas become, after voluntary communication to others, free as the air to common use.

The US States are our laboratories of democracy.

Ownership has been separated from control; and this separation has removed many of the checks which formerly operated to curb the misuse of wealth and power.