Louis D. Brandeis Quotes & Sayings

“Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.”

“Fear of serious injury alone cannot justify oppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.”

“Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.”

“If you would only recognize that life is hard, things would be so much easier for you.”

“Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.”

“Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent.”

“Democracy rests upon two pillars: one, the principle that all men are equally entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and the other, the conviction that such equal opportunity will most advance civilization.”

“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.”

“If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.”

“Those who won our independence... valued liberty as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.”