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.
Interpretation
Society will eventually recognize the flaws in how it handles life and crime, leading to improved methods for addressing poverty and ignorance.
In this quote, Clarence Darrow emphasizes the need for a societal shift in perspective regarding the value of human life and the existing judicial response to crime. He predicts that a time will come when people will be horrified by the current methods of dealing with crime, which often stems from deeper issues like poverty and ignorance, thereby prompting society to seek more humane and effective solutions.
In practice
During a debate on criminal justice reform, one could use this quote to illustrate the need for change.
With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in men, than any other association of men.
Do I need to argue to Your Honor that cruelty only breeds cruelty? That hatred only causes hatred; that if there is any way to soften this human heart which is hard enough at its best, if there is any way to kill evil and hatred and all that goes with it, it is not through evil and hatred and cruelty; it is through charity, and love, and understanding?
Chase after the truth like all hell.
No other offense has ever been visited with such severe penalties as seeking to help the oppressed.
Liberty is the most jealous and exacting mistress that can beguile the brain and soul of man. She will have nothing from him who will not give her all. She knows that his pretended love serves but to betray. But when once the fierce heat of her quenchless, lustrous eyes have burned into the victim's heart, he will know no other smile but hers.
The trouble with law is lawyers.
All religions lead to the same God, and all deserve the same respect. Anyone who chooses a religion is also choosing a collective way for worshipping and sharing the mysteries. Nevertheless, that person is the only one responsible for his or her actions along the way and has no right to shift responsibility for any personal decisions on to that religion.
Even as a junkie I stayed true [to vegetarianism] - 'I shall have heroin, but I shan't have a hamburger.' What a sexy little paradox.
It is better to die of hunger having lived without grief and fear, than to live with a troubled spirit, amid abundance
Since there is no one else to praise me, I will praise myself -- will say that I have never tampered with a single tooth in my thought machine, such as it is. There are teeth missing, God knows -- some I was born without, teeth that will never grow. And other teeth have been stripped by the clutchless shifts of history -- But never have I willfully destroyed a tooth on a gear of my thinking machine. Never have I said to myself, 'This fact I can do without.
I almost think that hope is for the soul what breathing is for the living organism. Where hope is lacking the soul dries up and withers.
I will never understand people who think that the way to show their righteous opposition to sexual freedom is to write letters full of filthy words.
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