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

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.

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.

Sunshine is the greatest disinfectant

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.

The makers of our Constitution . . . conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone - the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.

Repression breeds hate; hate menaces stable government.