The world is a better place to live in because it contains human beings who will give up ease and security in order to do what they themselves think worth doing. They do the useless, brave, noble, divinely foolish, and the very wisest things that are done by Man. And what they prove to themselves and to others is that Man is no mere creature of his habits, no automaton in his routine, but that in the dust of which he is made there is also fire, lighted now and then by great winds from the sky.

Popular government has not yet been proved to guarantee, always and everywhere, good government.

While the right to talk may be the beginning of freedom, the necessity of listening is what makes that right important.

What each man does is based not on direct and certain knowledge, but on pictures made by himself or given to him...

A country survives its legislation. That truth should not comfort the conservative nor depress the radical. For it means that public policy can enlarge its scope and increase its audacity, can try big experiments without trembling too much over the result. This nation could enter upon the most radical experiments and could afford to fail in them.

We must protect the right of our opponents to speak because we must hear what they have to say.

Modern men are afraid of the past. It is a record of human achievement, but its other face is human defeat.