Clarence Darrow Quotes

I am sure of very little, and I shouldn't be surprised if those things were wrong.

Never forget, almost every case has been won or lost when the jury is sworn.

The best that we can do is to be kindly and helpful toward our friends and fellow passengers who are clinging to the same speck of dirt while we are drifting side by side to our common doom.

To think is to differ.

The trouble with law is lawyers.

Education was in danger from the source that always hampered it—religious fanaticism.

Physical deformity, calls forth our charity. But the infinite misfortune of moral deformity calls forth nothing but hatred and vengeance.

You can't get to a pleasant place to be at unless you use pleasant methods to get there. When you are dealing with a human society the means is fully as important as the end.

Eugene V. Debs has always been one of my heroes.

Chloroform unfit children. Show them the same mercy that is shown beasts that are no longer fit to live.

In order to have enough freedom, it is necessary to have too much.

Instead of yielding to idle conversation it might profit one to cultivate silence and contemplation.

Laws should be like clothes. They should be made to fit the people they are meant to serve.

Most jury trials are contests between the rich and poor.

For to know all is to understand all, and this leaves no room for judgment and condemnation.

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.

The truth is that brains have little to do with either the making or accumulating of money.

The origin of the absurd idea of immortal life is easy to discover; it is kept alive by hope and fear, by childish faith, and by cowardice.

The really intelligent are as abnormal as the defective. The great masses of men are rather mediocre, and those above and below are exceptions.

We're all killers at heart . . . . I have never taken anybody's life, but I have often read obituary notices with considerable satisfaction.

No nation can be really great that is held together by Gatling guns, and no true loyalty can be induced and kept through fear.

Working people have alot of bad habits, but the worst of these is work.

I never wanted to see anybody die, but there are a few obituary notices I have read with pleasure.

Different strokes for different folks.

With all their faults, trade-unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed.

No iconoclast can possibly escape the severest criticism.

I have always felt that doubt was the beginning of wisdom, and the fear of God was the end of wisdom.

Liberty is the most jealous and exacting mistress that can beguile the brain and soul of man.

There is a soul of truth in error; there is a soul of good in evil.

The purpose of life is living. Men and women should get the most they can out of their lives.

My constitution was destroyed long ago; now I am living under the bylaws.

Justice must take account of infinite circumstances which a human being cannot understand.

One cannot live through a long stretch of years without forming some philosophy of life.

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.

No man is a good citizen, a good neighbor, a good friend, or a good man just because he obeys the law. The intrinsic worth is determined mainly by the intrinsic make-up.

If a man is happy in America, it is considered he is doing something wrong.

We know life is futile. A man who considers that his life is of very wonderful importance is awfully close to a padded cell.

Religion is the belief in future life and in God. I don't believe in either.

Can any rational person believe that the Bible is anything but a human document?

Whenever I hear people discussing birth control, I always remember that I was fifth.

Men have always been obliged to fight to preserve liberty. Constitutions and laws do not safeguard liberty. It can be preserved only by a tolerant people, and this means eternal conflict.

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.

Everybody is a potential murderer. I've never killed anyone, but I frequently get satisfaction reading the obituary notices.

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.

Wars always bring about a conservative reaction. They overwhelm and destroy patient and careful efforts to improve the condition of man.

Depressions may bring people closer to the church but so do funerals.

Lawyers are natural politicians.

I feel as I always have, that the earth is the home and the only home of man, and I am convinced that whatever he is to get out of his existence he must get while he is here.

Autobiography is never entirely true. No one can get the right perspective on himself. Every fact is colored by imagination and dream.

All men have an emotion to kill; when they strongly dislike someone they involuntarily wish he was dead. I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.