Hugo Black Quotes

53 quotes in 805 categories

• Our Constitution was not written in the sands to be washed away by each wave of new judges blown in by each successive political wind.
• The Framers of the Constitution knew that free speech is the friend of change and revolution. But they also knew that it is always the…
• The layman's constitutional view is that what he likes is constitutional and that which he doesn't like is unconstitutional.
• When I was 40, my doctor advised me that a man in his 40s shouldn't play tennis. I heeded his advice carefully and could hardly…
• Paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them…
• There can be no equal justice where the kind of trial a man gets depends on the amount of money he has.
• No higher duty, or more solemn responsibility, rests upon this Court than that of translating into living law and maintaining this constitutional shield deliberately planned…
• Freedom of speech means that you shall not do something to people either for the views they have, or the views they express, or the…
• The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest…
• A union of government and religion tends to destroy government and degrade religion.
• The very first condition of lasting happiness is that a life should be full of purpose, aiming at something outside self.
• I cannot agree with those who think of the Bill of Rights as an 18th century straitjacket, unsuited for this age...The evils it guards against…
• Loyalty must arise spontaneously from the hearts of people who love their country and respect their government.
• We repeat and again reaffirm that neither a State nor the Federal Government can constitutionally force a person 'to profess a belief or disbelief in…
• No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever…
• Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.
• The United States has a system of taxation by confession
• Words uttered under coercion are proof of loyalty to nothing but self-interest. Love of country must spring from willing hearts and free minds.
• In my view, far from deserving condemnation for their courageous reporting, the New York Times, the Washington Post and other newspapers should be commended for…
• Laws are made to protect the trusting as well as the suspicious

Browse Hugo Black Quotes by Category