Quotes by William Orville Douglas

When a legislature undertakes to proscribe the exercise of a citizen's constitutional rights it acts lawlessly and the citizen can take matters into his own hands and proceed on the basis that such a law is no law at all.

The First Amendment makes confidence in the common sense of our people and in the maturity of their judgement the great postulate of our democracy.

The Fifth Amendment is an old friend and a good friend. It is one of the great landmarks in man's struggle to be free of tyranny, to be decent and civilized.

My faith is that the only soul a man just save is his own.

The search for static security-in the law and elsewhere-is misguided. The fact is . . . security can only be achieved through constant change, through discarding old ideas that have outlived their usefulness and adapting to current facts.

Literature should not be suppressed merely because it offends the moral code of the censor.

The growth of bigness has resulted in ruthless sacrifices of human value. The disappearance of free enterprise has submerged the individual in the impersonal corporation. When a nation of shopkeepers is transformed into a nation of clerks, enormous spiritual sacrifices are made.

The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom.

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.

We have a system which, though far from perfect, is strong with idealism. It gives elbow room for men of all races and all beliefs. It is vital and dynamic. And it works. We have the means of shaping the world in our pattern. If we do, freedom will be assured for all men. The decision is in the hands of this generation. It is a challenge to our political competence. For Western civilization it is the greatest challenge of all time.