William O. Douglas

I would rather create a precedent than find one.

— William O. Douglas

The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom.

— William O. Douglas

The one governmental agency that has no ambition.

— William O. Douglas

Fear of ideas makes us impotent and ineffective.

— William O. Douglas

Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

— William O. Douglas

Common sense often makes good law.

— William O. Douglas

Common sense often makes a good law.

— William O. Douglas

The conscience of this nation is the Constitution.

— William O. Douglas

We who have the final word can speak softly or angrily. We can seek to challenge and annoy, as we need not…

— William O. Douglas

We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.

— William O. Douglas

Religious experiences which are as real as life to some may be incomprehensible to others.

— William O. Douglas

The law is not a series of calculating machines where answers come tumbling out when the right levers are pushed.

— William O. Douglas

The Constitution favors no racial group - no political or social group.

— William O. Douglas

The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people.

— William O. Douglas

Why cannot we work at cooperative schemes and search for the common ground binding all mankind together?

— William O. Douglas

Literature should not be suppressed merely because it offends the moral code of the censor.

— William O. Douglas

The censor is always quick to justify his function in terms that are protective of society. But the First Amendment, written in…

— William O. Douglas

Effective self-government cannot succeed unless the people are immersed in a steady, robust, unimpeded, and uncensored flow of opinion and reporting which…

— William O. Douglas

Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience (in this case, the judge or the…

— William O. Douglas

“Big Brother in the form of an increasingly powerful government and in an increasingly powerful private sector will pile the records high…

— William O. Douglas

Men may believe what they cannot prove. They may not be put to the proof of their religious doctrines or beliefs. Religious…

— William O. Douglas

No matter what the legislature may say, a man has the right to make his speech, print his handbill, compose his newspaper,…

— William O. Douglas

Christianity has sufficient inner strength to survive and flourish on its own. It does not need state subsidies, nor state privileges, nor…

— William O. Douglas

I've often thought that if planners were botanists, zoologists, geologists, and people who know about the earth, we would have much more…

— William O. Douglas

Any test that turns on what is offensive to the community's standards is too loose, too capricious, too destructive of freedom of…

— William O. Douglas

Only when there is a wilderness can man harmonize his inner being with the wavelengths of the earth. When the earth, its…

— William O. Douglas

There is no superior person by constitutional standards. An applicant who is white is entitled to no advantage by reason of that…

— William O. Douglas

A function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose…

— William O. Douglas

“Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could…

— William O. Douglas

But our society - unlike most in the world - presupposes that freedom and liberty are in a frame of reference that…

— William O. Douglas

This freedom of movement is the very essence of our free society, setting us apart. Like the right of assembly and the…

— William O. Douglas

The thrill of tramping alone and unafraid through a wilderness of lakes, creeks, alpine meadows, and glaciers is not known to many.…

— William O. Douglas

The Constitution and the Bill of Rights we designed to get the government off the backs of the people -- all the…

— William O. Douglas

Discovery is adventure. There is an eagerness, touched at times with tenseness, as man moves ahead into the unknown. Walking the wilderness…

— William O. Douglas

Where suspicion fills the air and holds scholars in line for fear of their jobs, there can be no exercise of the…

— William O. Douglas

“Once the government can demand of a publisher the names of the purchasers of his publications, the free press as we know…

— William O. Douglas

Man is about to be an automaton; he is identifiable only in the computer. As a person of worth and creativity, as…

— William O. Douglas

My faith is that the only soul a man must save is his own.

— William O. Douglas

The right to revolt has sources deep in our history.

— William O. Douglas

A reporter is no better than his source of information.

— William O. Douglas