9 Clarence Darrow Quotes on Justice

Clarence Darrow quotes on justice

4. The objector and the rebel who raises his voice against what he believes to be the injustice of the present and the wrongs of the past is the one who hunches the world along.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. It is often said that the accused should be given an immediate trial; that this and subsequent proceedings should not be hindered by delay; that the uncertainties of punishment furnish the criminal with the hope of escape and therefore do not give the community the benefit of the terror that comes with the certainty of punishment that could prevent crime. I can see no basis in logic or experience for this suggestion. It is based on the theory that punishment is not only a deterrent to crime, but the main deterrent. It comes from the idea that the criminal is distinct from the rest of mankind, that vengeance should be sure and speedy and that then crime would be prevented. If this were true and the only consideration to prevent crime, then the old torture chamber and the ancient prison with all its hopelessness and horror should be restored. Logic, humanity and experience would protest against this. If there is to be any permanent improvement in man and any better social order, it must come mainly from the education and humanizing of man. I am quite certain that the more the question of crime and its treatment is studied the less faith men have in punishment.

12. There is no such thing as justice - in or out of court.

22. As long as the world shall last, there will be wrongs, and if no man objected and no man rebelled, those wrongs would last forever.

61. No other offense has ever been visited with such severe penalties as seeking to help the oppressed.

65. The trouble with law is lawyers.

68. True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else.