The right to dissent is the only thing that makes life tolerable for a judge of an appellate court... the affairs of government could not be conducted by democratic standards without it.
William O. DouglasHiking a ridge, a meadow, a river bottom, is as healthy a form of exercise as one can get.
William O. DouglasMan must be able to escape civilization if he is to survive. Some of his greatest needs are for refuges and retreats where he can recapture for a day or a week the primitive conditions of life.
William O. DouglasAcceptance by government of a dissident press is a measure of the maturity of a nation.
William O. DouglasThese unwritten amenities have been in part responsible for giving our people the feeling of independence and self-confidence, the feeling of creativity. These amenities have dignified the right of dissent and have honored the right to be nonconformists and the right to defy submissiveness. They have encouraged lives of high spirits rather than hushed, suffocating silence.
William O. Douglas