The 'wall of separation between church and state' is a metaphor based on bad history, a metaphor which has proved useless as a guide to judging. It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned.

I realize that it is an unpopular and unhumanitarian position, for which I have been excoriated by 'liberal' colleagues, but I think Plessy v. Ferguson was right and should be re-affirmed.

We start with first principles. The Constitution creates a Federal Government of enumerated powers.

It is always possible for the court to overreach its proper bounds and perhaps declare a lot of laws unconstitutional and frustrate the will of the majority in a way that it ought not be frustrated.

Conservatives are those who worship dead radicals.

The Equal Rights Amendment would "turn holy wedlock into holy deadlock."

Somewhere "out there," beyond the walls of the courthouse, run currents and tides of public opinion which lap at the courtroom door.

The Constitution requires that Congress treat similarly situated persons similarly, not that it engages in gestures of superficial equality.

The "wall of separation between church and State" is a metaphor based on bad history.

The laws will not be silent in time of war but they'll speak with a somewhat different voice.

If you could say of any one individual that the court as an institution is the length and shadow of that individual, surely it would be John Marshall.

Hope is the joy of soul.

Enduring happiness only comes when you share your happiness with others.

Everything government touches turns to crap.

No one ever found wisdom without also being a fool. Writers, alas, have to be fools in public, while the rest of the human race can cover its tracks.

What do you say to taking chances?

I tasted life.

Yeah, because when you’re attracted to someone, you actually enjoy kissing them and afterward, you don’t act like you kissed Adolf Hitler.

Why must every eleven minutes of my life be filled with misery?

The odds were against us, but we deserve to be where we are.

In this life you have obstacles.