Famous quotes by Judges

Judges

From courtrooms large and small, the words of judges offer rare windows into how justice is weighed, tested, and delivered. These quotations explore fairness and accountability, the limits of power, the burden of decision, and the moral courage required to uphold the rule of law. Spanning eras and legal traditions, they reveal humility, dissent, reason, and mercy in equal measure. Read to reflect on civic life, individual rights, and the responsibilities we share when resolving conflict and seeking a society governed by principled judgment.

"That the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution"

William Blackstone, Judge

Small: William Blackstone

"Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do"

Potter Stewart, Judge

"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both"

Louis D. Brandeis, Judge

Small: Louis D. Brandeis

"In a big family the first child is kind of like the first pancake. If it's not perfect, that's okay, there are a lot more coming along"

Antonin Scalia, Judge

"Fairness is what justice really is"

Potter Stewart, Judge

"We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is, and the judiciary is the safeguard of our property and our liberty and our property under the Constitution"

Charles Evans Hughes, Judge

"Free men have arms; slaves do not"

William Blackstone, Judge

Small: William Blackstone

"If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable"

Louis D. Brandeis, Judge

Small: Louis D. Brandeis

"Swift justice demands more than just swiftness"

Potter Stewart, Judge

"If it is a mistake of the head and not the heart don't worry about it, that's the way we learn"

Earl Warren, Judge

Small: Earl Warren

"What is a moderate interpretation of the text? Halfway between what it really means and what you'd like it to mean?"

Antonin Scalia, Judge

"The law, which restrains a man from doing mischief to his fellow citizens, though it diminishes the natural, increases the civil liberty of mankind"

William Blackstone, Judge

Small: William Blackstone

"The police must obey the law while enforcing the law"

Earl Warren, Judge

Small: Earl Warren

"In revealing the workings of government that led to the Vietnam War, the newspapers nobly did precisely that which the Founders hoped and trusted they would do"

Hugo Black, Judge

"The real rulers in Washington are invisible, and exercise power from behind the scenes"

Felix Frankfurter, Judge

"The 4th Amendment and the personal rights it secures have a long history. At the very core stands the right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion"

Potter Stewart, Judge

"In civilized life, law floats in a sea of ethics"

Earl Warren, Judge

Small: Earl Warren

"A union of government and religion tends to destroy government and degrade religion"

Hugo Black, Judge

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

William J. Brennan, Judge

"It is better that ten guilty escape than one innocent suffer"

William Blackstone, Judge

Small: William Blackstone

"The liberties of none are safe unless the liberties of all are protected"

William O. Douglas, Judge

"Law cannot stand aside from the social changes around it"

William J. Brennan, Judge

"A healthy democracy requires a decent society; it requires that we are honorable, generous, tolerant and respectful"

Charles W. Pickering, Judge

Small: Charles W. Pickering

"Hang 'em first, try 'em later"

Roy Bean, Judge

"The husband and wife are one, and that one is the husband"

William Blackstone, Judge

Small: William Blackstone

"Liberty, not communism, is the most contagious force in the world"

Earl Warren, Judge

Small: Earl Warren

"It is not women's liberation, it is women's and men's liberation"

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Judge

"The emphasis must be not on the right to abortion but on the right to privacy and reproductive control"

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Judge

"The 5th Amendment is an old friend and a good friend. one of the great landmarks in men's struggle to be free of tyranny, to be decent and civilized"

William O. Douglas, Judge

"None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody - a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns - bent down and helped us pick up our boots"

Thurgood Marshall, Judge

Small: Thurgood Marshall

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