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The purpose of man is like the purpose of a pollywog - to wiggle along as far as he can without dying or, to hang to life until death takes him.

Clarence Darrow

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Clarence Darrow
Age: 80 †
Born: 1857
Born: April 18
Died: 1938
Died: March 13
Lawyer
Writer
Clarence Seward Darrow
Clarence S. Darrow
Purpose
Death
Without
Men
Wiggle
Life
Hang
Like
Dying
Along
Takes

More quotes by Clarence Darrow

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Most jury trials are contests between the rich and poor.
Clarence Darrow
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Do you, good people, believe that Adam and Eve were created in the Garden of Eden and that they were forbidden to eat from the tree of knowledge? I do. The church has always been afraid of that tree. It still is afraid of knowledge. Some of you say religion makes people happy. So does laughing gas. So does whiskey. I believe in the brain of man.
Clarence Darrow
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In life one cannot eat his cake and have it, too he must make his choice and then do the best he can to be content to go the way his judgment leads.
Clarence Darrow
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Most lawyers only tell you about the cases they win. I can tell you about some I lose. A lawyer who wins all his cases does not have many.
Clarence Darrow
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It is just as often a great misfortune to be the child of the rich as it is to be the child of the poor. Wealth has its misfortunes. Too much, too great opportunity and advantage given to a child has its misfortunes.
Clarence Darrow
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No nation can be really great that is held together by Gatling guns, and no true loyalty can be induced and kept through fear.
Clarence Darrow
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One cannot live through a long stretch of years without forming some philosophy of life.
Clarence Darrow
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I had grown tired of standing in the lean and lonely front line facing the greatest enemy that ever confronted man -- public opinion.
Clarence Darrow
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Can any rational person believe that the Bible is anything but a human document?
Clarence Darrow
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If there is to be any permanent improvement in man and any better social order, it must come mainly from the education and humanizing of man.
Clarence Darrow
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Do you think you can cure the hatreds and the maladjustments of the world by hanging them? You simply show your ignorance and your hate when you say it. You may here and there cure hatred with love and understanding, but you can only add fuel to the flames by cruelty and hate.
Clarence Darrow
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Lawyers are natural politicians.
Clarence Darrow
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Everyone is the heir to all that has gone before his structure and emotional life is fixed, and no two children of nature have the same heredity. I believe everyone should and must live out what is in him. So no two lives can be the same.
Clarence Darrow
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Criminal cases receive the attention of the press. The cruel and disagreeable things of life are more apt to get the newspaper space than the pleasant ones. It must be that most people enjoy hearing of and reading about the troubles of others. Perhaps men unconsciously feel that they rise in the general level as others go down.
Clarence Darrow
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For to know all is to understand all, and this leaves no room for judgment and condemnation.
Clarence Darrow
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I am simply an agnostic. I haven't yet had time or opportunity to explore the universe, and I don't know what I might run on to in some nook or corner.
Clarence Darrow
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Inside every lawyer is the wreck of a poet.
Clarence Darrow
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I am always suspicious of righteous indignation. Nothing is more cruel than righteous indignation.
Clarence Darrow
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A jury is more apt to be unbiased and independent than a court, but they very seldom stand up against strong public clamor. Judges naturally believe the defendant is guilty.
Clarence Darrow
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Those who enjoy the emotion of hating are much like the groups who sate their thirst for blood by hunting and hounding to death helpless animals as an outlet for their emotions.
Clarence Darrow