Quote

The one governmental agency that has no ambition.

William O. Douglas

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

William O. Douglas
Age: 81 †
Born: 1898
Born: October 16
Died: 1980
Died: January 19
Former Associate Justice Of The Supreme Court Of The United States
Judge
Lawyer
Trade Unionist
University Teacher
William Orville Douglas
William Douglas
Governmental
Agency
Ambition
Law

More quotes by William O. Douglas

Image
It seemed to me that I had barely reached the Court when people were trying to get me off.
William O. Douglas
Image
Since when have we Americans been expected to bow submissively to authority and speak with awe and reverence to those who represent us?
William O. Douglas
Image
The most important aspect of freedom of speech is freedom to learn. All education is a continuous dialogue - questions and answers that pursue every problem on the horizon. That is the essence of academic freedom.
William O. Douglas
Image
There is no superior person by constitutional standards. An applicant who is white is entitled to no advantage by reason of that fact, nor is he subject to any disability, no matter what his race or color. Whatever his race, an applicant has a constitutional right to have his application considered on its individual merits.
William O. Douglas
Image
Tell the FBI that the kidnappers should pick out a judge that Nixon wants back.
William O. Douglas
Image
A reporter is no better than his source of information.
William O. Douglas
Image
We must realize that today's establishment is the new George III. Whether it will continue to adhere to his tactics, we do not know. If it does, the redress, honored in tradition, is also revolution.
William O. Douglas
Image
What a man thinks is no concern of the government.
William O. Douglas
Image
The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people.
William O. Douglas
Image
The liberties of none are safe unless the liberties of all are protected.
William O. Douglas
Image
The law is not a series of calculating machines where answers come tumbling out when the right levers are pushed.
William O. Douglas
Image
The association promotes a way of life, not causes a harmony in living, not political faiths a bilateral loyalty, not commercial or social projects. Yet it is an association for as noble a purpose as any involved in any prior decisions.
William O. Douglas
Image
Trees have judicial standing, and probably grass too.
William O. Douglas
Image
There have always been grievances and youth has always been the agitator.
William O. Douglas
Image
Those in power need checks and restraints lest they come to identify the common good for their own tastes and desires, and their continuation in office as essential to the preservation of the nation.
William O. Douglas
Image
I hope to be remembered as someone who made the earth a little more beautiful.
William O. Douglas
Image
When man ventures into the wilderness, climbs the ridges, and sleeps in the forest, he comes in close communion with his Creator. When man pits himself against the mountain, he taps inner springs of his strength. He comes to know himself.
William O. Douglas
Image
The way to combat noxious ideas is with other ideas. The way to combat falsehoods is with truth.
William O. Douglas
Image
It is better, so the Fourth Amendment teaches us, that the guilty sometimes go free than the citizens be subject to easy arrest.
William O. Douglas
Image
The privacy and dignity of our citizens is being whittled away by sometimes imperceptible steps. Taken individually, each step may be of little consequence. But when viewed as a whole, there begins to emerge a society quite unlike any we have seen - a society in which government may intrude into the secret regions of a life.
William O. Douglas