Louis D. Brandeis Quotes

We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.

Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill it teaches the whole people by example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means - to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal - would bring terrible retributions.

The most important office, and the one which all of us can and should fill, is that of private citizen.

Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.

Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.

Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.

The only title in our democracy superior to that of President is the title of citizen.

If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.

It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.

Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.

To declare that in the administration of criminal law the end justifies the means to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order to secure conviction of a private criminal would bring terrible retribution.

The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people.

Strong, responsible unions are essential to industrial fair play. Without them the labor bargain is wholly one-sided. The parties to the labor contract must be nearly equal in strength if justice is to be worked out, and this means that the workers must be organized and that their organizations must be recognized by employers as a condition precedent to industrial peace.

If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.

... fear breeds repression; that repression breeds hate; that hate menaces stable government; that the path of safety lies in the opportunity to discuss freely supposed grievances and proposed remedies; and that the fitting remedy for evil counsels is good ones.

It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.

Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.

The function of the press is very high. It is almost holy. It ought to serve as a forum for the people, through which the people may know freely what is going on. To misstate or suppress the news is a breach of trust.

In the frank expression of conflicting opinions lies the greatest promise of wisdom in governmental action.

The makers of our Constitution . . . conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone - the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.

Those who won our independence believed that the final end of the state was to make men free to develop their faculties... They valued liberty both as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty... that public discussion is a political duty; and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government.

Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent.

The right most valued by all civilized men is the right to be left alone.

In a democracy, the most important office is the office of citizen

There is a spark of idealism within every individual which can be fanned into flame and bring forth extraordinary results.

Neutrality is at times a graver sin than belligerence.

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.

Crime is contagious....if the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law.

Fear of serious injury alone cannot justify oppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.

Behind every argument is somebody's ignorance. Rediscover the foundation of truth and the purpose and causes of dispute immediately disappear.

America has believed that in differentiation, not in uniformity, lies the path of progress. It acted on this belief; it has advanced human happiness, and it has prospered.

There are no shortcuts in evolution.

Those who won our independence... valued liberty as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.

There is no great writing, only great rewriting.

The old idea of a good bargain was a transaction in which one man got the better of another. The new idea of a good contract is a transaction which is good for both parties to it.

No one can really pull you up very high - you lose your grip on the rope. But on your own two feet you can climb mountains.

The best of wages will not compensate for excessively long working hours which undermine heath.

I used to oppose women's suffrage and I've come to support it because these women have convinced me that we need full gender equality for full democratic participation.

Strong, responsible unions are essential to industrial fair play. Without them the labor bargain is wholly one-sided.

Those who won our independence by revolution were not cowards. They did not fear political change. They did not exalt order at the cost of liberty.

Behind every argument is someone's ignorance.

Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly.

Organisation can never be a substitute for initiative and for judgement.

If we would guide by the light of reason we must let our minds be bold.

The goose that lays golden eggs has been considered a most valuable possession. But even more profitable is the privilege of taking the golden eggs laid by somebody else's goose. The investment bankers and their associates now enjoy that privilege.

In business, the earning of profit is something more than an incident of success. It is an essential condition of success. It is an essential condition of success because the continued absence of profit itself spells failure.

We learned long ago that liberty could be preserved only by limiting in some way the freedom of action of individuals; that otherwise liberty would necessarily yield to absolutism; and in the same way we have learned that unless there be regulation of competition, its excesses will lead to the destruction of competition, and monopoly will take its place.

There is no good writing; there is only good rewriting.

The world presents enough problems if you believe it to be a world of law and order; do not add to them by believing it to be a world of miracles.

The most important thing we do is not doing.