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Human action is governed largely by instinct and emotion.

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
Largely
Instinct
Emotion
Action
Human
Humans
Governed

More quotes by Clarence Darrow

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The law is a horrible business.
Clarence Darrow
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If a man really has charge of his destiny at all, he should have something to say about getting born and I only came through by a hair's-breadth. What had I to do with this momentous first step? In the language of the lawyer, I was not even a party of the second part.
Clarence Darrow
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In spite of all the yearnings of men, no one can produce a single fact or reason to support the belief in God and in personal immortality.
Clarence Darrow
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Anyone can spot a lie, unless he is in need of that lie.
Clarence Darrow
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The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business.
Clarence Darrow
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One believes in the truthfulness of a man because of his long experience with the man, and because the man has always told a consistent story. But no man has told so consistent a story as nature.
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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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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Whenever I hear people discussing birth control, I always remember that I was fifth.
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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No other offense has ever been visited with such severe penalties as seeking to help the oppressed.
Clarence Darrow
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I cannot tell and I shall never know how many words of mine might have given birth to cruelty in place of love and kindness and charity.
Clarence Darrow
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Every thought of pity is like the balm of Gilead to our souls.
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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True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else.
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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We're all killers at heart . . . . I have never taken anybody's life, but I have often read obituary notices with considerable satisfaction.
Clarence Darrow
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The efforts of the medical profession in the US to control:...its...job it proposes to monopolize. It has been carrying on a vigorous campaign all over the country against new methods and schools of healing because it wants the business...I have watched this medical profession for a long time and it bears watching.
Clarence Darrow
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Punishment as punishment is not admissible unless the offender has had the freewill to select his course.
Clarence Darrow
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Thirteen states with a population less than that of New York State alone can prevent repeal [of prohibition] until Halley's comet returns. One might as well talk about a summer vacation on Mars.
Clarence Darrow