20 Quotes & Sayings By Louis D Brandeis

Louis Dembitz Brandeis was born on November 13, 1856 to immigrants who were members of the Orthodox Jewish community in Boston, Massachusetts. A brilliant student, he graduated from Harvard Law School at age twenty-nine, only two months after his first wife died of typhoid fever. After practicing law for three years, he was appointed Solicitor for the U.S. Treasury Department which gave him the opportunity to formulate new tax laws that he believed would improve the overall economy of the country Read more

He had little experience with commerce or industry, but this was his entry into political life.

1
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 understan Louis D. Brandeis
2
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."~ Louis D. Brandeis Louis D. Brandeis
3
Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done. Louis D. Brandeis
4
If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced sil Louis D. Brandeis
5
The most important office is that of private citizen. Louis D. Brandeis
6
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. Louis D. Brandeis
7
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable. Louis D. Brandeis
8
There are no shortcuts in evolution. Louis D. Brandeis
9
Democracy rests upon two pillars: one, the principle that all men are equally entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and the other, the conviction that such equal opportunity will most advance civilization. Louis D. Brandeis
10
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. Louis D. Brandeis
11
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. Louis D. Brandeis
12
Fear of serious injury alone cannot justify oppression 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 D. Brandeis
13
Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. Louis D. Brandeis
14
Let no American imagine that Zionism is inconsistent with patriotism. Multiple loyalties are objectionable only if they are inconsistent. Louis D. Brandeis
15
The most important political office is that of the private citizen. Louis D. Brandeis
16
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 D. Brandeis
17
To declare that in the administration of criminal law the end justifies the means to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order to secure conviction of a private criminal would bring terrible retribution. Louis D. Brandeis
18
In the frank expression of conflicting opinions lies the greatest promise of wisdom in governmental action. Louis D. Brandeis
19
Behind every argument is someone's ignorance. Louis D. Brandeis