Louis Brandeis quotes

Louis Brandeis was an American lawyer and Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, known for his progressive views. A champion of social justice and privacy rights, he played a pivotal role in shaping modern American law. He became one of the most influential legal thinkers of the 20th century. Here are 68 of his quotes:

Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears. (Louis Brandeis)
If we would guide by the light of reason we must let our minds be bold. View quote
Louis Brandeis
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable. View quote
Louis Brandeis
We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both. View quote
Louis Brandeis
Behind every argument is someone's ignorance. View quote
Louis Brandeis
What are the American ideals? They are the development of the individual for his own and the common good; the development of the individual through liberty, and the attainment of the common good through democracy and social justice. View quote
Louis Brandeis
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. View quote
Louis Brandeis
The intensity and complexity of life, attendant upon advancing civilization, have rendered necessary some retreat from the world. View quote
Louis Brandeis
When a man feels that he cannot leave his work, it is a sure sign of an impending collapse. View quote
Louis Brandeis
It is, as a rule, far more important how men pursue their occupation than what the occupation is which they select. View quote
Louis Brandeis
A man is a better citizen of the United States for being also a loyal citizen of his state, and of his city; for being loyal to his family, and to his profession or trade; for being loyal to his college or his lodge. ... For only through the ennobling effect of its strivings can we develop the best that is in us and give to this country the full benefit of our great inheritance. (Louis Brandeis)
Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. View quote
Louis Brandeis
At the foundation of our civil liberties lies the principle that denies to government officials an exceptional position before the law and which subjects them to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen. View quote
Louis Brandeis
[N]o people ever did or ever can attain a worthy civilization by the satisfaction merely of material needs... View quote
Louis Brandeis
[T]hat which is man-made can be unmade. View quote
Louis Brandeis
Real success in business is to be found in achievements comparable rather with those of the artist or the scientist, of the inventor or statesman. And the joys sought in the profession of business must be like their joys and not the mere vulgar satisfaction which is experienced in the acquisition of money, in the exercise of power or in the frivolous pleasure of mere winning. View quote
Louis Brandeis
[N]o law, written or unwritten, can be understood without a full knowledge of the facts out of which it arises, and to which it is to be applied. View quote
Louis Brandeis
America has believed that in differentiation, not in uniformity, lies the path of progress. It acted on this belief; it has advanced human happiness, and it has prospered. View quote
Louis Brandeis
The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding. View quote
Louis Brandeis
Strong, responsible unions are essential to industrial fair play. Without them the labor bargain is wholly one-sided. The parties to the labor contract must be nearly equal in strength if justice is to be worked out, and this means that the workers must be organized and that their organizations must be recognized by employers as a condition precedent to industrial peace. View quote
Louis Brandeis
Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. (Louis Brandeis)
Those who won our independence... valued liberty as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty. View quote
Louis Brandeis
Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman. View quote
Louis Brandeis
The bow must be strung and unstrung . . . there must be time also for the unconscious thinking which comes to the busy man in his play. View quote
Louis Brandeis
There is nothing cold or detached or aloof about the private Brandeis, but it is perfectly in keeping with his views of privacy that while he was alive he kept . . . his life and personality hidden from public view. View quote
Louis Brandeis