In a constitutional democracy the moral content of law must be given by the morality of the framer or legislator, never by the morality of the judge.

An egalitarian educational system is necessarily opposed to meritocracy and reward for achievement. It is inevitably opposed to procedures that might reveal differing levels of achievement.

One man's larceny is another's just distribution of goods.

Our country is being radically altered, step by step, by Justices who are not following any law.

The purpose that brought the fourteenth amendment into being was equality before the law, and equality, not separation, was written into the law.

No activity that society thinks immoral is victimless. Knowledge that an activity is taking place is a harm to those who find it profoundly immoral.

It is a ship with a great deal of sail but a very shallow keel.

Those who made and endorsed our Constitution knew man's nature, and it is to their ideas, rather than to the temptations of utopia, that we must ask that our judges adhere.

A society deadened by a smothering network of laws while finding release in moral chaos is not likely to be either happy or stable.

No church that panders to the zeitgeist deserves respect, and very shortly it will not get respect, except from those who find it politically useful, and that is less respect than disguised contempt.

[The current governing judicial philosophy is:] If you want something passionately enough, it is guaranteed by the Constitution. No need to fiddle around gathering votes from recalcitrant citizens.

That’s the thing about life. You don’t always get a second chance and there are no guarantees. Love is the only thing that really matters.

Act as if you were already the person you want most to be.

The Council of the Royal Society is a collection of men who elect each other to office and then dine together at the expense of this society to praise each other over wine and give each other medals.

I've always had a sneaking fondness for Martin Van Buren. He wrote his autobiography, you know, and never once mentioned his wife. Now that's what I call a mans man.

When you begin to give value to the world, somehow the people you affect will find a way to tell you. Even if it takes a couple of years.

The history of any nation is not only a succession of events, but also a chain of ideas.

We are as answerable for what we give as for what we receive; nay, the misplacing of a benefit is worse than the not receiving of it; for the one is another person's fault, but the other is mine.

We all do what we can, and it has to be good enough, and if it isn't good enough, it has to do.

You have to set goals that are almost out of reach. If you set a goal that is attainable without much work or thought, you are stuck with something below your true talent and potential.

There's like this great thing that Bette Davis said when someone asked her, "How do you get into Hollywood?" "Take Fountain!"