Top 31 Quotes & Sayings by Ramsey Clark

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American public servant Ramsey Clark.
Last updated on September 17, 2024.
Ramsey Clark

William Ramsey Clark was an American lawyer, activist, and federal government official. A progressive, New Frontier liberal, he occupied senior positions in the United States Department of Justice under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, serving as United States Attorney General from 1967 to 1969; previously, he was Deputy Attorney General from 1965 to 1967 and Assistant Attorney General from 1961 to 1965.

A great many people in this country are worried about law-and-order. And a great many people are worried about justice. But one thing is certain; you cannot have either until you have both.
Turbulence is life force. It is opportunity. Let's love turbulence and use it for change.
I didn't volunteer; they asked me. I felt a duty to testify. — © Ramsey Clark
I didn't volunteer; they asked me. I felt a duty to testify.
Our first concern is the security of the lawyers because without security you can't possibly have a fair trial, if trial at all, and that's not been adequately attended to.
Who will protect the public when the police violate the law?
Most faults are not in our Constitution, but in ourselves.
The greatest crime since World War II has been U.S. foreign policy.
If Rosa Parks had not refused to move to the back of the bus, you and I might never have heard of Dr. Martin Luther King.
A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take from you.
There are few better measures of the concern a society has for its individual members and its own well being than the way it handles criminals.
The measure of your quality as a public person, as a citizen, is the gap between what you do and what you say.
Our emotions may cry for vengeance in the wake of a horrible crime, but we know that killing the criminal will not undo the crime, will not prevent similar crimes by others, does not benefit the victim, destroys human life and brutalizes society. If we are to still violence, we must cherish life. Executions cheapen life.
The United States is not nearly so concerned that its acts be kept secret from its intended victims as it is that the American people not know of them.
This country of ours has committed the most serious act of aggression in its history by engaging in a war of aggression without a declaration of war by Congress.
Honesty is the best policy in international relations, interpersonal relations, labor, business, education, family and crime control because truth is the only thing that works and the only foundation on which lasting relations can build.
Violence is the ultimate human degradation.
A humane and generous concern for every individual, his health and his fulfillment, will do more to soothe the savage heart than the fear of state-inflicted death, which chiefly serves to remind us how close we remain to the jungle.
The Christian Church overwhelmingly - there are exceptions - who choose to call Muhammad a terrorist. They could call Jesus a terrorist too. I mean, he was pretty tough on money lenders a time or two.
Both trials are marred with injustice, both are flawed.
Impeachment is the direct constitutional means for removing a President, Vice President or other civil officers of the United States who has acted or threatened acts that are serious offenses against the Constitution, its system of government, or the rule of law, or that are conventional crimes of such a serious nature that they would injure the Presidency if there was no removal.
The U.S. has in its stockpiles more nuclear bombs, chemical and biological weapons, more aircraft, rockets and delivery systems in number and sophistication than the rest of the world combined. Included are twenty commissioned Trident II nuclear submarines any one of which could destroy Europe.
It has never happened in history that a nation that has won a war has been held accountable for atrocities committed in preparing for and waging that war. We intend to make this one different. What took place was the use of technological material to destroy a defenseless country. From 125,000 to 300,000 people were killed... We recognize our role in history is to bring the transgressors to justice.
The great and constant need of those who investigate homicide and practice forensic pathology or criminal law is a warm humanism.
How dare Americans allow their government to cause such misery [in the world]. — © Ramsey Clark
How dare Americans allow their government to cause such misery [in the world].
People who don't cherish their elderly have forgotten whence they came and whither they go.
We're not a democracy. It's a terrible misunderstandin g and a slander to the idea of democracy to call us that. In reality, we're a plutocracy: a government by the wealthy.
Our history shows that the death penalty has been unjustly imposed, innocents have been killed by the state, effective rehabilitation has been impaired, judicial administration has suffered. It is the poor, the sick, the ignorant, the powerless, and the hated who are executed.
Islam is the only religion that gives dignity to the poor.
Democracy is just a word. You have to give it meaning. The US is not a democracy. Most Americans do not vote. We haven't had a real choice for a long, long time now. Wealth rules. Corporations rule. The US is a plutocracy - government by wealthy people. Certain people control multinational corporations. You couldn't get elected in the US without lots of money.
Impeachment appears six times in the U.S. Constitution. The Founders weren't concerned with anything more than with impeachment because they had lived under King George III and had in 1776 accused the king of all the things that George W. Bush wants to do: Usurpation of the power of the people; Being above the law; Criminal abuse of authority.
Nothing so diminishes democracy as secrecy.
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