Quotessence
Home / Authors / William O. Douglas
William O. Douglas

William O. Douglas Quotes

Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenGovernmentLibertyPeopleAmendmentsFirst AmendmentLawFirstsIfsConstitutionMayPrivacyShouldDoeKnowsStatesThinkingFreedom Of SpeechPoliticalSpeech

Famous William O. Douglas Quotes

“Inanimate objects are sometimes parties to litigation. A ship has a legal personality, a fiction found useful for maritime purposes. The corporation sole - a creature of ecclesiastical law - is an acceptable adversary, and large fortunes ride on its cases... So it should be as respects valleys, alpine meadows, rivers, lakes, estuaries, beaches, ridges, groves of trees, swampland, or even air that feels the destructive pressures of modern technology and modern life.”

FeelsShouldSometimesWaterPartyCasesTechnologyAirTreeModernObjectsPersonalityPressureFortuneEnvironmentalShipsCorporationsDestructiveValleysAcceptableModern LifeAdversariesGroveRidgesInanimate ObjectsModern Technology
Author:William O. Douglas
Create image

“The concept of the public welfare is broad and inclusive ... the values it represents are spiritual as well as physical, aesthetic as well as monetary. It is within the power of the legislature to determine that the community should be beautiful as well as healthy, spacious as well as clean, well balanced as well as carefully patroled.”

ShouldWellsBeautifulSpiritualValuesCommunityEnvironmentHealthyConceptsCleanDetermineWelfareBroadsInclusionAestheticBalancedLegislatureMonetaryPublic Welfare
Author:William O. Douglas
Create image

“Big Brother in the form of an increasingly powerful government and in an increasingly powerful private sector will pile the records high with reasons why privacy should give way to national security, to law and order, to efficiency of operation, to scientific advancement and the like.”

WayGivingShouldReasonBigsGovernmentFormLawOrderPowerfulRecordsSecurityBrotherReason WhyOperationsPrivacyEfficiencyNational SecurityAdvancementPrivate SectorLaw And OrderWorld GovernmentOne World GovernmentScientific AdvancementPowerful Government
Book:POINTS OF REBELLION
Create image

“Where suspicion fills the air and holds scholars in line for fear of their jobs, there can be no exercise of the free intellect. Supineness and dogmatism take the place of inquiry. A problem can no longer be pursued to its edges. Fear stalks the classroom. The teacher is no longer a stimulant to adventurous thinking; she becomes instead a pipe line for safe and sound information. A deadening dogma takes the place of free inquiry. Instruction tends to become sterile; pursuit of knowledge is discouraged; discussion often leaves off where it should begin.”

ThinkingShouldProblemJobsFearSoundLinesTeacherAirInformationExerciseSafeEdgesIntellectPursuitDiscussionInstructionClassroomScholarDogmaSuspicionInquiryDiscouragedPursuedPipeAdventurousStalkingPursuit Of KnowledgeDogmatismStimulantsSafe And Sound
Author:William O. Douglas
Create image