Top 102 Quotes & Sayings by Louis D. Brandeis - Page 2

The most important thing we do is not doing.

In a democracy, the most important office is the office of citizen

Behind every argument is somebody's ignorance. Rediscover the foundation of truth and the purpose and causes of dispute immediately disappear.

There is no good writing; there is only good rewriting.

Subtler and more far-reaching means of invading privacy have become available to the government. Discovery and invention have made it possible for the government, by means far more effective than stretching upon the rack, to obtain disclosure in court of what is whispered in the closet.

Repression breeds hate; hate menaces stable government.

Strong, responsible unions are essential to industrial fair play. Without them the labor bargain is wholly one-sided.

The US States are our laboratories of democracy.

Those who won our independence believed that the final end of the state was to make men free to develop their faculties.

The Jews are a Distinct Nationality regardless of where they live, their station in life or their shades of belief, and his clarion call to all the Jews in the world to 'organize, organize, organize,' until every Jew in America must stand up and be counted - counted with us - or prove himself, wittingly or unwittingly, of the few who are against their own people.

We learned long ago that liberty could be preserved only by limiting in some way the freedom of action of individuals; that otherwise liberty would necessarily yield to absolutism; and in the same way we have learned that unless there be regulation of competition, its excesses will lead to the destruction of competition, and monopoly will take its place.

Sunshine is the best disinfectant

There is a spark of idealism within every individual which can be fanned into flame and bring forth extraordinary results.

If you would venture, let your mind be bold . . . not reckless but bold.

Those who won our independence by revolution were not cowards. They did not fear political change. They did not exalt order at the cost of liberty.

No danger flowing from speech can be deemed clear and present unless the incidence of the evil apprehended is so imminent that it may befall before there is an opportunity for full discussion. Only an emergency can justify repression.

In business, the earning of profit is something more than an incident of success. It is an essential condition of success. It is an essential condition of success because the continued absence of profit itself spells failure.

If you will just start with the idea that this is a hard world, it will all be much simpler.

The progress of science in furnishing the government with means of espionage is not likely to stop with wire tapping. Ways may some day be developed by which the government, without removing papers from secret drawers, can reproduce them in court, and by which it will be enabled to expose to a jury the most intimate occurrences of the home. Advances in the psychic and related sciences may bring means of exploring unexpressed beliefs, thoughts and emotions. 'That places the liberty of every man in the hands of every petty officer' was said by James Otis of much lesser intrusions than these.

History is not life, but since only life makes history, the union of the two is obvious.

The best of wages will not compensate for excessively long working hours which undermine heath.

There is no great writing, only great rewriting.

Sunshine is the greatest disinfectant

Anyone who critically analyzes a business learns this: that the success or failure of an enterprise depends usually upon one man.

It is one of the greatest economic errors to put any limitation upon production.We have not the power to produce more than there is a potential to consume.

The old idea of a good bargain was a transaction in which one man got the better of another. The new idea of a good contract is a transaction which is good for both parties to it.

The greatest factors making for communism, socialism or anarchy among a free people are the excesses of capital. The talk of the agitator does not advance socialism one step. The great captains of industry and finance... are the chief makers of socialism.

The tax-exempt privilege is a feature always reflected in the market price of [municipal] bonds. The investor pays for it.

I rise early because no day is long enough for a day's work.

To be good Americans, we must be better Jews, and to be better Jews, we must become Zionists.

Men feared witches and burned women.

There are better mothers than disaster. A native land is the best of all mothers. We American Jews have a native land we love. But it is even better to have a native land who loves us.

We gain nothing by trading the tyranny of capital for the tyranny of labor.

Ownership has been separated from control; and this separation has removed many of the checks which formerly operated to curb the misuse of wealth and power.

The general rule of law is, that the noblest of human productions knowledge, truths ascertained, conceptions and ideas become, after voluntary communication to others, free as the air to common use.

Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases.

There is no such thing as an innocent purchaser of stocks.

I think all of our human Experience shows that no one with absolute power can be trusted to give it up even in part

Those who won our independence by revolution were not cowards.

Nearly all legislation involves a weighing of public needs as against private desires; and likewise a weighing of relative social values.

What I have desired to do is to make the people of Boston realize that the most important office, and the one which all of us can and should fill, is that of private citizen.

People fear witches, and burn women.