The quote database

If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment , it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.

We do not consecrate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so we dilute the freedom that this cherished emblem represents.

When once a decision is reached and execution is the order of the day, dismiss absolutely all responsibility and care about the outcome.

Every slave is a stolen man; every slaveholder is a man-stealer.

Hence, I cannot but regard oppression in every form--and most of all, that which turns a man into a thing--with indignation and abhorrence.

Convince me that one man may rightfully make another man his slave, and I will no longer subscribe to the Declaration of Independence.

Show me the government which can be maintained only by destroying the rights of a portion of the people; and you will indicate the duty of openly revolting against it.

What you demand for yourselves, in virtue of your manhood, I demand for the enslaved at the South, on the same ground.

Arbitration is the true method of settlement of international as well as local or individual differences.

We want no wars of conquest; we must avoid the temptation of territorial aggression.

War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed; peace is preferable to war in almost every contingency.

Honesty, capacity, and industry are nowhere more indispensable than in public employment.

There are some national questions in the solution of which patriotism should exclude partisanship.

Nature does not give us our livelihood gratis; we must win it by toil of some sort or degree.

The vitality of civil and political institutions in our society depends on free discussion.

The right to speak freely and to promote diversity of ideas and programs is therefore one of the chief distinctions that sets us apart from totalitarian regimes.

Free speech has occupied an exalted position because of the high service it has given our society.

Free speech--the glory of our system of government--should not be sacrificed on anything less than plain and objective proof of danger that the evil advocated is imminent.

One's beliefs have long been thought to be sanctuaries which government could not invade.

The quality of advocacy turns on the depth of the conviction; and government has no power to invade that sanctuary of belief and conscience.

Imperturbability means coolness and presence of mind under all circumstances, calmness amid storm, clearness of judgment in moments of grave peril, immobility, impassiveness, or, to use an old and expressive word, phlegm.

Let the day's work suffice; live for it, regardless of what the future has in store, believing that to-morrow should take thought for the things of itself.

Our duty is to cleanse, to reconsider, to restore, to correct the evil without impairing the good, to purify and humanize every process of our common life without weakening or sentimentalizing it.

The first duty of law is to keep sound the society it serves.

Surely it is hardly fitting that the ruler should be baser than the ruled.