The framers of the constitution knew human nature as well as we do. They too had lived in dangerous days; they too knew the suffocating influence of orthodoxy and standardized thought. They weighed the compulsions for restrained speech and thought… — William O. Douglas Copy Share Image
Christianity has sufficient inner strength to survive and flourish on its own. It does not need state subsidies, nor state privileges, nor state prestige. The more it obtains state support the greater it curtails human freedom. — 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
