William O. Douglas Quotes

America promised equality. Its constitution said so. My schoolbooks said so. The country wasn't perfect, to be sure. But its ideals were. And every day brought us closer to those ideals.

Among the basic freedoms to which men aspire that their lives might be full and uncramped, freedom from fear stands out as both a means and an end. A people who would build a nation in which strong, democratic institutions are firmly established as a guarantee against state-induced power must first learn to liberate their own minds from apathy and fear.

Our two nations both faced great challenges when they were founded, and our two nations have both relied on the same principles to help us succeed. We've built strong democracies to protect the freedoms given to us by an Almighty God. We've welcomed immigrants, who have helped us thrive. We've built prosperous economies by rewarding innovation and risk-taking and trade. And we've built an enduring alliance to confront terrorists and tyrants.

The day that the black man takes an uncompromising step and realizes that he's within his rights, when his own freedom is being jeopardized, to use any means necessary to bring about his freedom or put a halt to that injustice, I don't think he'll be by himself.

Hong Kong has a reputation for freedom in spite of the People's Republic of China. It has a strong tradition of free speech.

Democracy is not an end in itself, but a means to achieve the sacred promises of human dignity, justice and peace.

There is a hard core of people in the United States who will not be moved, whatever facts you present, from their conviction that this nation means only to do good, and almost always does good, in the world, that it is the beacon of liberty and freedom.

It's liberty or it's death. It's freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody.

There is some who say that perhaps freedom is not universal. Maybe it's only Western people that can self-govern. Maybe it's only, you know, white-guy Methodists who are capable of self-government. I reject that notion.

And this Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.

It's certainly not too late to change to the winning side. But you know, you also have the freedom to stay just where you are. That's what it means to be an American. That's the miracle of America. Freedom to believe means the freedom to believe the wrong thing, after all. Just as freedom of speech gives you the right to stay silent.

It is part of the moral tragedy with which we are dealing that words like 'democracy,' 'freedom,' 'rights,' 'justice,' which have so often inspired heroism and have led men to give their lives for things which make life worthwhile, can also become a trap, the means of destroying the very things men desire to uphold.

I have always considered Christianity as the strong ground of republicanism.

Democracy means the belief that humanistic culture should prevail.

Liberty and good government do not exclude each other; and there are excellent reasons why they should go together. Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.

Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them.

We want freedom by any means necessary. We want justice by any means necessary. We want equality by any means necessary. We don't feel that in 1964, living in a country that is supposedly based upon freedom, and supposedly the leader of the free world, we don't think that we should have to sit around and wait for some segregationist congressmen and senators and a President from Texas in Washington, D.C., to make up their minds that our people are due now some degree of civil rights. No, we want it now or we don't think anybody should have it.

The characteristic feature of a free society is that it can function in spite of the fact that its members disagree in many judgments of value. Freedom really means the freedom to make mistakes.

Here is the crisis of the times as I see it: We talk about problems, issues, policies, but we don't talk about what democracy means - what it bestows on us - the revolutionary idea that it isn't just about the means of governance but the means of dignifying people so they become fully free to claim their moral and political agency.

You can have a strong government and a weak people, or strong people and weak government, but you cannot have both.

Liberty is not the right of one, but of all.

The vote has been costly. Prize it...understand what it means and what it can do for your country.

A people who extend civil liberties only to preferred groups start down the path either to dictatorship of the right or the left.

A constitution, as important as it is, will mean nothing unless the people are yearning for liberty and freedom.

Democracy does not create strong ties between people. But it does make living together easier.