Top 100 Clarence Darrow Quotes
#1. The time will come when all people will view with horror light way in which society and its courts of law now take human life; and when that time comes, the way will be clear to device some better method of dealing with poverty and ignorance and their frequent byproducts, which we call crime.
Clarence Darrow
#2. The truth is that brains have little to do with either the making or accumulating of money.
Clarence Darrow
#3. Each child should be more intelligent than his parents.
Clarence Darrow
#4. Human action is governed largely by instinct and emotion.
Clarence Darrow
#7. I am an agnostic; I do not pretend to know what many ignorant men are sure of.
Clarence Darrow
#8. I am pleading for the future; I am pleading for a time when hatred and cruelty will not control the hearts of men. When we can learn by, reason and judgment and understanding and faith that all life is worth saving, and that mercy is the highest attribute of man.
Clarence Darrow
#9. Religion is the belief in future life and in God. I don't believe in either.
Clarence Darrow
#10. Every government on earth is the personification of violence and force, and yet the doctine of non-resistance is as old as human thought - even more than this, the instinct is as old as life upon the earth.
Clarence Darrow
#11. Never forget, almost every case has been won or lost when the jury is sworn.
Clarence Darrow
#12. No man is a good citizen, a good neighbor, a good friend, or a good man just because he obeys the law. The intrinsic worth is determined mainly by the intrinsic make-up.
Clarence Darrow
#13. No iconoclast can possibly escape the severest criticism.
Clarence Darrow
#14. I am an Agnostic because I am not afraid to think. I am not afraid of any god in the universe who would send me or any other man or woman to hell. If there were such a being, he would not be a god; he would be a devil.
Clarence Darrow
#16. Any one who thinks is an agnostic about something, otherwise he must believe that he is possessed of all knowledge. And the proper place for such a person is in the madhouse or the home for the feeble-minded.
Clarence Darrow
#17. I do not believe in God because I do not believe in Mother Goose.
Clarence Darrow
#18. Laws have come down to us from old customs and folk-ways based on primitive ideas of man's origin, capacity and responsibility.
Clarence Darrow
#20. The nation that would to-day disarm its soldiers and turn its people to the paths of peace would accomplish more to its building up than by all the war taxes wrong from its hostile and
unwilling serfs
Clarence Darrow
#21. A prison is confining to the body, but whether it affects the mind, depends entirely upon the mind.
Clarence Darrow
#22. I have always felt that doubt was the beginning of wisdom, and the fear of God was the end of wisdom.
Clarence Darrow
#24. The purpose of man is like the purpose of a pollywog - to wiggle along as far as he can without dying; or, to hang to life until death takes him.
Clarence Darrow
#26. There is no such crime as a crime of thought; there are only crimes of action.
Clarence Darrow
#27. Most jury trials are contests between the rich and poor.
Clarence Darrow
#28. Those who enjoy the emotion of hating are much like the groups who sate their thirst for blood by hunting and hounding to death helpless animals as an outlet for their emotions.
Clarence Darrow
#29. The fear of God is not the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the death of wisdom. Skepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom.
Clarence Darrow
#30. As long as the world shall last there will be wrongs, and if no man objected and if no man rebelled, those wrongs would last forever.
Clarence Darrow
#31. Autobiography is never entirely true. No one can get the right perspective on himself. Every fact is colored by imagination and dream.
Clarence Darrow
#32. Everything serious that he says is a joke and everything humorous that he says is dead serious.
Clarence Darrow
#33. No other offense has ever been visited with such severe penalties as seeking to help the oppressed.
Clarence Darrow
#34. I knew that it is out of the question to have honest, economical government while a few are inordinately rich and the great mass of men are poor. In fact, it is to be doubted if anything really worthwhile can be done until there is a fairer distribution of wealth.
Clarence Darrow
#35. Instead of yielding to idle conversation it might profit one to cultivate silence and contemplation.
Clarence Darrow
#36. To say that the universe was here last year, or millions of years ago, does not explain its origin. This is still a mystery. As to the question of the origin of things, man can only wonder
and doubt and guess.
Clarence Darrow
#37. The purpose of life is living. Men and women should get the most they can out of their lives.
Clarence Darrow
#39. A criminal is someone without the capital to incorporate
Clarence Darrow
#40. Ancestors do not mean so much. The rebel who succeeds generally makes it easier for the posterity that follows him; so these descendants are usually contented and smug and soft. Rebels are made from life, not ancestors.
Clarence Darrow
#41. The really intelligent are as abnormal as the defective. The great masses of men are rather mediocre, and those above and below are exceptions.
Clarence Darrow
#42. Life is a never-ending school, and the really important lessons all tend to teach humanity our proper relation to the environment where we must live.
Clarence Darrow
#43. This is life and all there is of life; to play the game, to play the cards we get; play them uncomplainingly and play them to the end. the playing of the game is the foregetting of self and play it bravely to the end
Clarence Darrow
#44. Everyone is the heir to all that has gone before; his structure and emotional life is fixed, and no two children of nature have the same heredity. I believe everyone should and must live out what is in him. So no two lives can be the same.
Clarence Darrow
#45. Chase after the truth like all hell and you'll free yourself, even though you never touch its coat tails.
Clarence Darrow
#46. The Constitution is a delusion and a snare if the weakest and humblest man in the land cannot be defended in his right to speak and his right to think as much as the strongest in the land.
Clarence Darrow
#47. We know life is futile. A man who considers that his life is of very wonderful importance is awfully close to a padded cell.
Clarence Darrow
#48. One believes in the truthfulness of a man because of his long experience with the man, and because the man has always told a consistent story. But no man has told so consistent a story as nature.
Clarence Darrow
#49. Justice must take account of infinite circumstances which a human being cannot understand.
Clarence Darrow
#50. The truth is, no man is white and no man is black. We are all freckled.
Clarence Darrow
#51. No law was ever made by the people; they are made for the people
Clarence Darrow
#52. Every thought of pity is like the balm of Gilead to our souls.
Clarence Darrow
#53. In the great flood of human life that is spawned upon the earth, it is not often that a man is born.
Clarence Darrow
#54. I don't believe in God because I don't believe in Mother Goose.
Clarence Darrow
#55. Punishment as punishment is not admissible unless the offender has had the free will to select his course.
Clarence Darrow
#56. Someday I hope to write a book where the royalties will pay for the copies I give away.
Clarence Darrow
#57. Everybody is a potential murderer. I've never killed anyone, but I frequently get satisfaction reading the obituary notices.
Clarence Darrow
#58. The man who fights for his fellow-man is a better man than the one who fights for himself.
Clarence Darrow
#59. I am simply an agnostic. I haven't yet had time or opportunity to explore the universe, and I don't know what I might run on to in some nook or corner.
Clarence Darrow
#61. You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free.
Clarence Darrow
#63. I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure - that is all that agnosticism means.
Clarence Darrow
#64. I cannot tell and I shall never know how many words of mine might have given birth to cruelty in place of love and kindness and charity.
Clarence Darrow
#65. Anyone can spot a lie, unless he is in need of that lie.
Clarence Darrow
#66. Wars always bring about a conservative reaction. They overwhelm and destroy patient and careful efforts to improve the condition of man.
Clarence Darrow
#67. The only real lawyers are trial lawyers, and trial lawyers try cases to juries.
Clarence Darrow
#68. Thirteen states with a population less than that of New York State alone can prevent repeal [of prohibition] until Halley's comet returns. One might as well talk about a summer vacation on Mars.
Clarence Darrow
#70. I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.
Clarence Darrow
#71. Calvin Coolidge was the greatest man who ever came out of Plymouth Corner, Vermont.
Clarence Darrow
#72. The ability and inclination to use physical strength is no indication of bravery or tenacity to life. The greatest cowards are often the greatest bullies. Nothing is cheaper and more common than physical bravery.
Clarence Darrow
#73. Physical deformity, calls forth our charity. But the infinite misfortune of moral deformity calls forth nothing but hatred and vengeance.
Clarence Darrow
#75. In order to have enough freedom, it is necessary to have too much.
Clarence Darrow
#76. It's not bad people I fear so much as good people. When a person is sure that he is good, he is nearly hopeless; he gets cruel- he believes in punishment.
Clarence Darrow
#77. In spite of all the yearnings of men, no one can produce a single fact or reason to support the belief in God and in personal immortality.
Clarence Darrow
#78. I go to a better tailor than any of you and pay more for my clothes. The only difference is that you probably don't sleep in yours.
Clarence Darrow
#79. Working people have alot of bad habits, but the worst of these is work.
Clarence Darrow
#80. The audience that storms the box-office of the theater to gain entrance to a sensational show is small and sleepy compared with the throng that crashes the courthouse door when something concerning real life and death is to be laid bare to the public.
Clarence Darrow
#81. Even if you do learn to speak correct English, whom are you going to speak it to?
Clarence Darrow
#82. A jury is more apt to be unbiased and independent than a court, but they very seldom stand up against strong public clamor. Judges naturally believe the defendant is guilty.
Clarence Darrow
#83. When they want a working man for anything excepting work they want him for conspiracy.
Clarence Darrow
#84. There are a lot of myths which make the human race cruel and barbarous and unkind. Good and Evil, Sin and Crime, Free Will and the like delusions made to excuse God for damning men and to excuse men for crucifying each other.
Clarence Darrow
#85. The true man neither guiltily conceals nor anxiously explains nor vulgarly parades.
Clarence Darrow
#86. I had a vivid imagination. Not only could I put myself in the other person's place, but I could not avoid doing so. My sympathies always went out to the weak, the suffering, and the poor. Realizing their sorrows I tried to relieve them in order that I myself might be relieved.
Clarence Darrow
#87. Freedom comes from human beings, rather than from laws and institutions.
Clarence Darrow
#88. You can't get to a pleasant place to be at unless you use pleasant methods to get there. When you are dealing with a human society the means is fully as important as the end.
Clarence Darrow
#89. The pursuit of truth will set you free; even if you never catch up with it.
Clarence Darrow
#90. The consideration and kindness shown by unfortunates to each other are surprising to those who have no experience with this class of men. Often to find real sympathy you must go to those who know what misery means.
Clarence Darrow
#91. I never wanted to see anybody die, but there are a few obituary notices I have read with pleasure.
Clarence Darrow
#92. Can any rational person believe that the Bible is anything but a human document?
Clarence Darrow
#93. Do you think you can cure the hatreds and the maladjustments of the world by hanging them? You simply show your ignorance and your hate when you say it. You may here and there cure hatred with love and understanding, but you can only add fuel to the flames by cruelty and hate.
Clarence Darrow
#94. No nation can be really great that is held together by Gatling guns, and no true loyalty can be induced and kept through fear.
Clarence Darrow
#95. There are two things that kill a genius: a fatal disease and contentment.
Clarence Darrow
#96. It does not make much difference what kind of a law we make as long as the judges tell us what it means.
Clarence Darrow
#97. Hoover, if elected, will do one thing that is almost incomprehensible to the human mind: he will make a great man out of Coolidge.
Clarence Darrow
#98. Religious doctrines do not and clearly cannot be adopted as the criminal code of a state.
Clarence Darrow
#99. It may never come, but I fancy than no man who has sympathy for the human race does not wish that sometime those who labor should have the whole product of their toil. Probably it will never come, but I wish that the time might come when men who work in the industries would own the industries.
Clarence Darrow
#100. Whenever I hear people discussing birth control, I always remember that I was fifth.
Clarence Darrow
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