Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [341-360] of 715 Justice quotesJustice QuotesJustice Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes The jury has the power to bring a verdict in the teeth of both law and fact.~ Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. I think that we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death, unless they so imminently threaten immediate interference with the lawful and pressing purposes of the law that an immediate check is required to save the country... Only the emergency that makes it immediately dangerous to leave the correction of evil counsels to time warrants making any exception to the sweeping command, 'Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech.'~ Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Every idea is an incitement. It offers itself for belief, and if believed it is acted on unless some other belief outweighs it or some failure of energy stifles the movement at its birth. The only difference between the expression of an opinion and an incitement is the speaker’s enthusiasm for the result.~ Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. This is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice.~ Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. But when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe…that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market… That at any rate is the theory of our constitution.~ Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. The Fourteenth Amendment was adopted with a view to the protection of the colored race, but has been found to be equally important in its application to the rights of all.~ Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Liberty is often a heavy burden on a man. It involves the necessity for perpetual choice which is the kind of labor men have always dreaded.~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. There never was an idea stated that woke men out of their stupid indifference but its originator was spoken of as a crank.~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. The very aim and end of our institutions is just this: that we may think what we like and say what we think.~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. It [freedom] is a thing of the spirit. Men must be free to worship, to think, to hold opinions, to speak without fear. They must be free to challenge wrong and oppression with the surety of justice.~ Herbert Hoover Truth telling, I have found, is the key to responsible citizenship. The thousands of criminals I have seen in 40 years of law enforcement have had one thing in common: every single one was a liar.~ J. Edgar Hoover Justice is incidental to law and order.~ J. Edgar Hoover I regret to say that we of the FBI are powerless to act in cases of oral-genital intimacy, unless it has in some way obstructed interstate commerce.~ J. Edgar Hoover Our institutions were not devised to bring about uniformity of opinion; if they had we might well abandon hope. It is important to remember, as has well been said, 'the essential characteristic of true liberty is that under its shelter many different types of life and character and opinion and belief can develop unmolested and unobstructed.'~ Justice Charles Evans Hughes Emergency does not create power. Emergency does not increase granted power or remove or diminish the restrictions imposed upon power granted or reserved. The Constitution was adopted in a period of grave emergency. Its grants of power to the federal government and its limitations of the power of the States were determined in the light of emergency, and they are not altered by emergency.~ Justice Charles Evans Hughes It is the essence of the institutions of liberty that it be recognized that guilt is personal and cannot be attributed to the holding of opinions or to mere intent in the absence of overt acts.~ Justice Charles Evans Hughes The liberty of the press is not confined to newspapers and periodicals. It necessarily embraces pamphlets and leaflets. These indeed have been historic weapons in the defense of liberty, as the pamphlets of Thomas Paine and others in our history abundantly attest.~ Justice Charles Evans Hughes The greater the importance to safeguarding the community from incitements to the overthrow of our institutions by force and violence, the more imperative is the need to preserve the constitutional rights of free speech, free press and free assembly in order to maintain the opportunity for free political discussion.~ Justice Charles Evans Hughes The Constitution is what the judges say it is.~ Justice Charles Evans Hughes The right to comment freely and criticize the action, opinions, and judgment of courts is of primary importance to the public generally. Not only is it good for the public; but it has a salutary effect on courts and judges as well.~ James P. Hughes Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print