Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.

But our society - unlike most in the world - presupposes that freedom and liberty are in a frame of reference that makes the individual, not government, the keeper of his tastes, beliefs, and ideas. That is the philosophy of the First Amendment; and it is this article of faith that sets us apart from most nations in the world.

One who comes to the Court must come to adore, not to protest. That's the new gloss on the First Amendment.

We know by now that if we make technology the predestined force in our lives, man will walk to the measure of its demands. We know how leveling that influence can be, how easy it is to computerize man and make him a servile thing in a vast industrial complex. . . . This means we must subject the machine - technology - to control and cease despoiling the earth and filling people with goodies merely to make money.

The great and invigorating influences in American life have been the unorthodox: the people who challenge an existing institution or way of life, or say and do things that make people think.

It seemed to me that I had barely reached the Court when people were trying to get me off.

I would rather create a precedent than find one.