These death sentences are cruel and unusual in the same way that being struck by lightning is cruel and unusual.

A person's mere propinquity to others independently suspected of criminal activity does not give rise to probable cause to search that person.

Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.

Abortion is inherently different from other medical procedures, because no other procedure involves the purposeful termination of a potential life.

Swift justice demands more than just swiftness.

Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.

The dichotomy between personal liberties and property rights is a false one. Property does not have rights. People have rights.

Fairness is what justice really is.

It must always be remembered that what the Constitution forbids is not all searches and seizures, but unreasonable searches and seizures.

I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material but I know it when I see it.

To force a lawyer on a defendant can only lead him to believe that the law contrives against him.

Love! Love until the night collapses!

We might 'conquer' nature if we could first, or at the same time, conquer our own nature, though we do not see that human nature and 'outside' nature are all of a piece.

We often hear that mathematics consists mainly of 'proving theorems.' Is a writer's job mainly that of 'writing sentences?

I never know what to tell young people when they come here. It could never happen for anyone they way it happened for me. It was all an accident.

With novels, you're sitting at a desk, alone, going slightly crazy, for anywhere from six months to a year with zero feedback.

Portraits are to daily faces As an evening west To a fine, pedantic sunshine In a satin vest.

There is no benefit in the gifts of a bad man.

The worst of failure of this kind is that it spoils the market for more competent performers.

It's not like I wake up and songs flow out of me.

I always win, I'm cursed to win.