All Quotes by Earl Warren
“In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education.”
“The only reason that there has been no sabotage or espionage on the part of Japanese-Americans is that they are waiting for the right moment to strike.”
“If it is a mistake of the head and not the heart don't worry about it, that's the way we learn.”
“Many people consider the things government does for them to be social progress but they regard the things government does for others as socialism.”
“You sit up there, and you see the whole gamut of human nature. Even if the case being argued involves only a little fellow and $50, it involves justice. That's what is important.”
“Liberty, not communism, is the most contagious force in the world.”
“We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”
“In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the State has undertaken to provide it, is a right that must be made available to all on equal terms.”
“The abhorrence of society to the use of involuntary confessions does not turn alone on their inherent untrustworthiness. It also turns on the deep-rooted feeling that the police must obey the law while enforcing the law; that, in the end, life and liberty can be as much endangered from illegal methods used to convict those thought to be criminals as from the actual criminals themselves.”
“To summarize: Americans have one of the greatest legal systems, but not a monopoly of the sense of justice, which is universal; nor have we a permanent copyright on the means of securing justice, for it is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.”
“The censor's sword pierces deeply into the heart of free expression.”
“In civilized life, law floats in a sea of ethics.”
“The man of character, sensitive to the meaning of what he is doing, will know how to discover the ethical paths in the maze of possible behavior.”
“The fantastic advances in the field of electronic communication constitute a greater danger to the privacy of the individual.”
“Legislators represent people, not trees or acres. Legislators are elected by voters, not farms or cities or economic interests.”
“I always turn to the sports section first. The sports section records people's accomplishments; the front page nothing but man's failures.”
“A society, in the process of moving forward, often appears to be tearing itself apart. Certainly, an age of rapid change, such as ours, produces many paradoxes. But perhaps the most tragic paradox of our time is to be found in the failure of nation-states to recognize the imperatives of internationalism.”
“I'm very pleased with each advancing year. It stems back to when I was forty. I was a bit upset about reaching that milestone, but an older friend consoled me. "Don't complain about growing old — many, many people do not have that privilege."”
“If Nixon is not forced to turn over tapes of his conversations with the ring of men who were conversing on their violations of the law, then liberty will soon be dead in this nation. If Nixon gets away with that, then Nixon makes the law as he goes along — not the Congress nor the courts. The old Court you and I served so long will not be worthy of its traditions if Nixon can twist, turn and fashion the law as he sees fit.”
“The Brown case and the changes it brought causes many people to believe that it was the most important case of my tenure on the Court. That appraisal may be correct, but I have never thought so. It seemed to me that accolade should go to the case of Baker v. Carr (1962), which was the progenitor of the "one man, one vote" rule.”
“We may not know the whole story in our lifetime.”
“I hate banks. They do nothing positive for anybody except take care of themselves. They're first in with their fees and first out when there's trouble.”
“Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile, I caught hell for.”
“In mid-life the man wants to see how irresistible he still is to younger women. How they turn their hearts to stone and more or less commit a murder of their marriage I just don't know, but they do.”
“Ben Franklin may have discovered electricity- but it is the man who invented the meter who made the money.”
“The most tragic paradox of our time is to be found in the failure of nation-states to recognize the imperatives of internationalism.”
“Many people consider the things government does for them to be social progress but they regard the things government does for others as socialism.”