History repeats itself. That’s one of the things wrong with history.
There is no such thing as justice – in or out of court.
Ancestors do not mean so much. The rebel who succeeds generally makes it easier for the posterity that follows him; so these descendants are usually contented and smug and soft. Rebels are made from life, not ancestors.
The best that we can do is to be kindly and helpful toward our friends and fellow passengers who are clinging to the same speck of dirt while we are drifting side by side to our common doom.
No other offense has ever been visited with such severe penalties as seeking to help the oppressed.
In this dilemma they evolved the theory of natural rights. If ‘natural rights’ means anything it means that the individual rights are to be determined by the conduct of Nature. But Nature knows nothing about rights in the sense of human conception.
In spite of all the yearnings of men, no one can produce a single fact or reason to support the belief in God and in personal immortality.
There is a soul of truth in error; there is a soul of good in evil.
I am a friend of the working man, and I would rather be his friend, than be one.
The only real lawyers are trial lawyers, and trial lawyers try cases to juries.
If you lose the power to laugh, you lose the power to think.
The origin of the absurd idea of immortal life is easy to discover; it is kept alive by hope and fear, by childish faith, and by cowardice.
The pursuit of truth will set you free; even if you never catch up with it.
Nothing is so loved by tyrants as obedient subjects.
Inside every lawyer is the wreck of a poet.
My constitution was destroyed long ago; now I am living under the bylaws.
I have suffered from being misunderstood, but I would have suffered a hell of a lot more if I had been understood.
All men have an emotion to kill; when they strongly dislike someone they involuntarily wish he was dead. I have never killed anyone, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.
If a man really has charge of his destiny at all, he should have something to say about getting born; and I only came through by a hair’s-breadth. What had I to do with this momentous first step? In the language of the lawyer, I was not even a party of the second part.
Men have always been obliged to fight to preserve liberty. Constitutions and laws do not safeguard liberty. It can be preserved only by a tolerant people, and this means eternal conflict.