Those in power need checks and restraints lest they come to identify the common good for their own tastes and desires, and their continuation in offi…

- William O. Douglas

I do not know of any salvation for society except through eccentrics, misfits, dissenters, people who protest.

- William O. Douglas

I learned early that the richness of life is found in adventure. Adventure calls on all the faculties of mind and spirit. It develops self-reliance a…

- William O. Douglas

The liberties of none are safe unless the liberties of all are protected.

- William O. Douglas

As night-fall does not come at once, neither does oppression...It is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air - however slight…

- William O. Douglas

To be whole and harmonious, man must also know the music of the beaches and the woods. He must find the thing of which he is only an infinitesimal pa…

- William O. Douglas

Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.

- William O. Douglas

The way to combat noxious ideas is with other ideas. The way to combat falsehoods is with truth.

- William O. Douglas

A function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it invites a condition …

- William O. Douglas