The law is not an end in itself, nor does it provide ends. It is preeminently a means to serve what we think is right.

Death is not only an unusually severe punishment, unusual in its pain, in its finality and in its enormity, but is serves no penal purpose more effectively than a less severe punishment.

We do not consecrate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so, we dilute the freedom this cherished emblem represents.

If the right to privacy means anything, it is the right of the individual, married or single, to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion.

There are no menial jobs, only menial attitudes.

We must meet the challenge rather than wish it were not before us.

Religious conflict can be the bloodiest and cruelest conflicts that turn people into fanatics.

Perhaps the bleakest fact of all is that the death penalty is imposed not only in a freakish and discriminatory manner, but also in some cases upon defendants who are actually innocent.

We cannot let colorblindness become myopia which masks the reality that many "created equal" have been treated within our lifetimes as inferior both by the law and by their fellow citizens.

After each perceived security crisis ended, the United States has remorsefully realized that the abrogation of civil liberties was unnecessary.

The framers knew that liberty is a fragile thing, and so should we.

I now see my life, not as a slow shaping of achievment to fit my preconceived purposes, but as the gradual discovery of a purpose which I did not know.

Stepping out of the busyness, stopping our endless pursuit of getting somewhere else, is perhaps the most beautiful offering we can make to our spirit.

Help!" he yelled and he lifted one leg, trying to run. But you can't outrun the membrane — he was soon gone.

Oh, for the love of God. There is no agent more agent than you. I swear you have pin-striped ties encrypted into your DNA. When you die, the coffin is going to read Property of the FBI.

Sometimes she is struck by how much she goes through life almost unconsciously. She is being swept along. She is a pale ghost.

In the post-Warhol era a single gesture such as uncrossing one's legs will have more significance than all the pages in War and Peace.

To create architecture is to put in order. Put what in order? Function and objects.

Criticism is a surreal state, like a good drug gone bad. When it's bad you wish it would stop, and when it's good, you can't get enough.

Life was a storm to wander through.

To marry is to get a binocular view of life.