Courts are an aristocratic institution in a democracy. That's the dilemma for an institution that has the function of reviewing the will of the people. We're bound to be "anti-majoritarian."

The judiciary must not take on the coloration of whatever may be popular at the moment. We are guardian of rights, and we have to tell people things they often do not like to hear.

Its always the minorities who arent a part of the mainstream who define what the limits... of the majority are going to be.

It is easy to be popular. It is not easy to be just.

My role isn't to be politically smart. My role is to do what's right under the constitution. And if that's politically unpopular, so be it.

The courts are an easy scapegoat because at a time when everything has to boiled down to easy slogans, we speak in subtleties.

Art strives for form, and hopes for beauty.

We are incarcerating more people on a per capita basis in California than any country in the world other than South Africa or the Soviet Union.

Was there any meaning to life or to war, that two men should sit together and jump within seconds of each other and yet never meet on the ground below?

The most effective way of learning is by observation and emulation.

If I were a bean, ... I wouldn't sulk all day long.

It is not weird for a dad to be doing the dishes, the laundry, and taking the kids to school, and read them stories for bed.

Jewelry is something that has to do with emotion. That aspect of jewelry really interests me.

I would trade all my experimental works for the single idea of the benzene theory.

He is less likely to be mistaken who looks forward to a change in the affairs of the world than he who regards them as firm and stable.

In the particular lies the universal.

High office, is like a pyramid; only two kinds of animals reach the summit — reptiles and eagles.

Pity is like lust ... both like to masquerade as love and it's powerfully hard to know the difference when you're in the throes of it.