What we must remember, however, is that preservation of liberties does not depend on motives. A suppression of liberty has the same effect whether the suppressor be a reformer or an outlaw. The only protection against misguided zeal is constant… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
The Constitution and the Bill of Rights we designed to get the government off the backs of the people -- all the people. Those great documents guarantee to us all the rights to personal and spiritual self-fulfillment. But that guarantee… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
The First Amendment makes confidence in the common sense of our people and in the maturity of their judgement the great postulate of our… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
Inanimate objects are sometimes parties to litigation. A ship has a legal personality, a fiction found useful for maritime purposes. The corporation sole -… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
Any test that turns on what is offensive to the community's standards is too loose, too capricious, too destructive of freedom of expression to… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
I've often thought that if planners were botanists, zoologists, geologists, and people who know about the earth, we would have much more wisdom in… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
I have the same confidence in the ability of our people to reject noxious literature as I have in their capacity to sort out… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
The liberties of none are safe unless the liberties of all are protected. — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
A function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
At the constitutional level where we work, 90 percent of any decision is emotional. The rational part of us supplies the reasons for supporting… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
To be whole and harmonious, man must also know the music of the beaches and the woods. He must find the thing of which… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
We deal with a right of privacy older than the Bill of Rights-older than our political parties, older than our school system. — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
