Clarence Quotes & Sayings

Elephants suffer from too much patience. Their exhibitions of it may seem superb,-such power and such restraint, combined, are noble,-but a quality carried to excess defeats itself. — Clarence Day

The ablest lawyers are always associated with the biggest fees. — Clarence Darrow

When you look at where the real problems are among minorities in our society, particularly blacks, it's at the bottom. It's the people who are in school systems that don't educate, neighborhoods where there is a lot of crime, drugs, the whole bit. — Clarence Thomas

Does man Progress? A thousand questions answered yesterday create a thousand questions today. — Clarence H. Burns

You can legislate many conditions-but you cannot legislate harmony into the hearts of men. To attain industrial peace, we need more than by-laws and compulsory rules. — Clarence Francis

So I spoke to my old friend Bruce and told him I was feeling it, his loss of Clarence. We talked for quite a while, and there is no need to go into what two old friends had to say to each other at this point, except to say that two old friends spoke to each other about their music, their muses, their partners in crime, their proof, their friendship, their souls and their lives. Ben Keith was my Clarence Clemons. Clarence Clemons was Bruce's Ben Keith. When he died last year it touched me to the core. I don't want to ever think of any one else playing his parts or occupying his space. No one could. I can't do those songs again unless it's solo. So I told Bruce, "Waylon once looked at me and said, 'There's very few of us left.'" He liked that. I told him when he looked to his right I would be there. That's enough. I'm not talking about that anymore. — Neil Young

Instead of yielding to idle conversation it might profit one to cultivate silence and contemplation. — Clarence Darrow

Worth, courage, honor, these indeed
Your sustenance and birthright are. — Edmund Clarence Stedman

The trouble with law is lawyers. — Clarence Darrow

We tend to select top men for their character and capacity, then overload them according to their willingness. — Clarence Benjamin Jones

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. I'm beginning to believe it. — Clarence Darrow

When every event was a miracle, when there was no order or system or law, there was no occasion for studying any subject, or being interested in anything excepting a religion which took care of the soul. As man doubted the primitive conceptions about religion, and no longer accepted the literal, miraculous teachings of ancient books, he set himself to understand nature. — Clarence Darrow

I believe that there is a moral and constitutional equivalence between laws designed to subjugate a race and those that distribute benefits on the basis of race in order to foster some current notion of equality ... In my mind, government-sponsored racial discrimination based on benign prejudice is just as noxious as discrimination inspired by malicious prejudice. — Clarence Thomas

Ignorance and fanaticism is ever busy and needs feeding. Always it is feeding and gloating for more. — Clarence Darrow

No man is a good citizen, a good neighbor, a good friend, or a good man just because he obeys the law. The intrinsic worth is determined mainly by the intrinsic make-up. — Clarence Darrow

Never forget, almost every case has been won or lost when the jury is sworn. — Clarence Darrow

One of my basic feelings is that the mind, and the heart alike, of the photographer must be dedicated to the glory, the magic, and the mystery of light. The mystery of time, the magic of light, the enigma of reality - and their interrelationships - are my constant themes and preoccupations. — Clarence John Laughlin

Through the white snow-gate of our ampitheatre, as through a frame we looked eastward upon the summit group; not a tree, not a vestige of vegetation in sight,-sky, snow and granite the only elements in this wild picture. — Clarence King

The crowning evidence that Jesus was alive was not a vacant grave, but a spirit-filled fellowship. Not a rolled away stone, but a carried away church. — Clarence Jordan

Nathaniel Septimus Ernest Bertram Lysander Tybalt Zacharias Edmund Alexander Humphrey Percy Quentin Tristan Augustus Bartholomew Tarquin Imogen Sebastian Theodore Clarence Smythe. — David Walliams

Can any rational person believe that the Bible is anything but a human document? — Clarence Darrow

You have a number of choices. You could continue to always fight against people who are really distractions. They're people in the cheap seats of life. Or you can do what you went there to do. — Clarence Thomas

An agnostic is a doubter. The word is generally applied to those who doubt the verity of accepted religious creeds of faiths. — Clarence Darrow

If a man really has charge of his destiny at all, he should have something to say about getting born; and I only came through by a hair's-breadth. What had I to do with this momentous first step? In the language of the lawyer, I was not even a party of the second part. — Clarence Darrow

Fear is the polio of the soul. Faith is the life based on unseen realities; it is the word become flesh. — Clarence Jordan

Above the clouds I lift my wing
To hear the bells of Heaven ring;
Some of their music, though my fights be wild,
To Earth I bring;
Then let me soar and sing! — Edmund Clarence Stedman

Dogs have more love than integrity. They've been true to us, yes, but they haven't been true to themselves. — Clarence Day Jr.

Religion is based on the insistence that over and above all is a purpose and a guiding hand that is beneficent and kind, and would not leave a hair unnumbered or let a sparrow fall unnoticed to the ground. Those who cherish such hallucinations forget that the all-loving power is inflicting tuberculosis, cancer, famine, and pestilence on the trusting, simple sons of men. — Clarence Darrow

I don't get it," Clarence whispered to me. "We're the only ones in the place. When are your friends supposed to get here?"
"Why, bab?" asked the cream pitcher, its top opening and closing like a tiny silver mouth. "Are you thinking about asking one of the waitresses out instead?" The chuckle that followed was a little coarser than the silvery-bell variety one usually expects from invisible spirits. Clarence let out a yelp like a dog whose tail has just found its way under a foot and was halfway to the front door before I could convince him to come back. At the other end of the long room the waitresses looked up without interest, then went back to discussing particle physics or whatever else was keeping them from bringing me a glass of water — Tad Williams

There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. — C.S. Lewis

I have no agenda - just to be loved. Somebody said to me, 'Whenever somebody says your name, a smile comes to their face.' That's a great accolade. I strive to keep it that way. — Clarence Clemons

Every thought of pity is like the balm of Gilead to our souls. — Clarence Darrow

When they want a working man for anything excepting work they want him for conspiracy. — Clarence Darrow

I'm not an Uncle Tom ... I'm going to be here for 40 years. For those who don't like it, get over it. — Clarence Thomas

A man can seem to have many friends yet know little of friendship. — Clarence H. Burns

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. — Clarence Darrow

I get up in the morning, torture a typewriter until it screams, then stop. — Clarence Budington Kelland

Clarence Darrow, one of history's greatest lawyers, once noted "There is no such thing as justice, in or out of court." Perhaps because justice is a flawed concept that ultimately comes down to the decision of twelve people. People with their own experiences, prejudices, feelings about what defines right and wrong. Which is why, when the system fails us, we must go out and seek our own justice. — Emily Thorne

Privilege is least apparent to those who have it. — Clarence Page

I was sympathetic to virtually all groups that wanted to get away from the old system. — Clarence Thomas

I hope his wife feeds him [Clarence Thomas, Justice, U.S. Supreme Court] lots of eggs and butter and he dies early like many black men do, of heart disease ... He is an absolutely reprehensible person. — Julianne Malveaux

We talk of our mastery of nature, which sounds very grand; but the fact is we respectfully adapt ourselves, first, to her ways. — Clarence Day

There is no such crime as a crime of thought; there are only crimes of action. — Clarence Darrow

Criminal cases receive the attention of the press. The cruel and disagreeable things of life are more apt to get the newspaper space than the pleasant ones. It must be that most people enjoy hearing of and reading about the troubles of others. Perhaps men unconsciously feel that they rise in the general level as others go down. — Clarence Darrow

After the Reagan years, there were only three people of color in the Republican Party. Their slogan was 'Republicans - the Other White Meat.' George [H.] Bush tried to dispel the 'whites only' image of his party, often referring to his Mexican-American grandkids as 'the little brown ones over there,' and nominated Clarence Uncle Thomas to the Supreme Court. — Kate Clinton

History repeats itself. That's one of the things wrong with history. — Clarence Darrow

The Constitution does not vest in Congress the authority to protect society from every bad act that might befall it ... [I]f followed to its logical extreme, [this approach] would result in an unwarranted expansion of federal power. — Clarence Thomas

I knew that it is out of the question to have honest, economical government while a few are inordinately rich and the great mass of men are poor. In fact, it is to be doubted if anything really worthwhile can be done until there is a fairer distribution of wealth. — Clarence Darrow

The only real lawyers are trial lawyers, and trial lawyers try cases to juries. — Clarence Darrow

Will and wisdom are both mighty leaders. Our times worship will. — Clarence Day

God is not a celestial prison warden jangling the keys on a bunch of lifers
he's a shepherd seeking for sheep, a woman searching for coins, a father waiting for his son. — Clarence Jordan

Every government on earth is the personification of violence and force, and yet the doctine of non-resistance is as old as human thought - even more than this, the instinct is as old as life upon the earth. — Clarence Darrow

Dissatisfaction with one's self and dissatisfaction with the world - is necessary - it is one of the prime things that keeps the artist going on - that drives him - happiness, as such, must come in between times, as best it can. — Clarence John Laughlin

I feel as I always have, that the earth is the home and the only home of man, and I am convinced that whatever he is to get out of his existence he must get while he is here. — Clarence Darrow

I play American and World music, Texas style. — Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown

No law was ever made by the people; they are made for the people — Clarence Darrow

No nation can be really great that is held together by Gatling guns, and no true loyalty can be induced and kept through fear. — Clarence Darrow

A moderate addiction to money may not always be hurtful; but when taken in excess it is nearly always bad for the health. — Clarence Day

Unfortunately, the reality was that, for political reasons or whatever, there was a need to enforce antidiscrimination laws, or at least there was a perceived need to do that. — Clarence Thomas

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

We stay in U2's hotel. They bought a hotel, The Clarence, a nice place and it's in an area where everything's happening, so many fantastic restaurants and bars and the people are so friendly. — Bonnie Tyler

Most jury trials are contests between the rich and poor. — Clarence Darrow

Every maiden's weak and willin' When she meets the proper villian. — Clarence Day

I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure. — Clarence Darrow

The truth is, no man is white and no man is black. We are all freckled. — Clarence Darrow

Is there a rarer being,
Is there a fairer sphere
Where the strong are not unseeing,
And the harvests are not sere;
Where, ere the seasons dwindle
They yield their due return;
Where the lamps of knowledge kindle
While the flames of youth still burn? — Edmund Clarence Stedman

Lawyers are natural politicians. — Clarence Darrow

The business man who gains success at the expense of the poor and miserable gains nil respect from his peers. — Clarence H. Burns

I don't know one of my friends who is considered a conservative who has not had to go back and thoroughly think through everything. You do a lot of soul-searching - 'cause we are not going to win any popularity contests. — Clarence Thomas

I'd been very partial to Malcolm X, particularly his self-help teachings. — Clarence Thomas

Men are egotists, and not all tolerant of one man's selfhood; they do not always deem the amities elective. — Edmund Clarence Stedman

It is bigotry for public schools to teach only one theory of origins. — Clarence Darrow

Henry Lloyd was with Darrow when they toured the mine. It was a dreadful experience, Lloyd said, "like a foretaste of the inferno."

"You might as well get used to it," Darrow told him. Heaven was reserved for Wall Street financiers. Infidels like themselves would be rooming with Satan. — John A. Farrell

It must always be remembered that all laws are naturally and inevitably evolved by the strongest force in a community, and in the last analysis made for the protection of the dominant class. — Clarence Darrow

It does not make much difference what kind of a law we make as long as the judges tell us what it means. — Clarence Darrow

[T]he courts are so willing to assume that anything that is predominantly black must be inferior ... The mere fact that a school is black does not mean that it is the product of an unconstitutional violation. — Clarence Thomas

A prison is confining to the body, but whether it affects the mind, depends entirely upon the mind. — Clarence Darrow

I look forward to working out every day. — Clarence Clemons

A critic must accept what is best in a poet, and thus become his best encourager. — Edmund Clarence Stedman

The test of a civilized person is first self-awareness, and then depth after depth of sincerity in self-confrontation. — Clarence Day

A city should be built to give its inhabitants security and happiness — Clarence Stein

The really intelligent are as abnormal as the defective. The great masses of men are rather mediocre, and those above and below are exceptions. — Clarence Darrow

The outcome of the Clarence Thomas hearings and his subsequent appointment to the Supreme Court shows how misguided, narrow notions of racial solidarity that suppress dissent and critique can lead black folks to support individuals who will not protect their rights. — Bell Hooks

Good manners will open doors that the best education cannot. — Clarence Thomas

It's a matter of choosing what is most important to you and putting that first. Once you have recognized your true purpose in life, this becomes much easier. — Clarence Clemons

In the purifying sweep of atheism human beings lost all special value. The numb misery of the horse was matched by that of the farmer; the once-green ferny lives crushed into coal's fossiliferous strata were no more anonymous and obliterated than Clarence's own life would soon be, in a wink of earth's tremendous time. Without Biblical blessing the physical universe became sherry horrible and disgusting. All fleshy acts became vile, rather than merely some. The reality of men slaying lambs and cattle, fish and fowl to sustain their own bodies took on an aspect of grisly comedy
the blood-soaked selfishness of a cosmic mayhem. — John Updike

It really bugs me that someone will tell me, after I spent 20 years being educated, how I'm supposed to think. — Clarence Thomas

Children get dealt grossly unequal hands, but that is all the more reason to treat them equally in school, Chris thought. "I think the cruelest form of prejudice is ... if I ever said, 'Clarence is poor, so I'll expect less of him than Alice.' Maybe he won't do what Alice does. But I want his best." She knew that precept wasn't as simple as it sounded. Treating children equally often means treating them very differently. But it also means bringing the same moral force to bear on all of them, saying, in effect, to Clarence that you matter as much as Alice and won't get away with not working, and to Alice that you won't be allowed to stay where you are either. — Tracy Kidder

People get bent out of shape about the fact that when I was a kid, you could not drink out of certain water fountains. Well, the water was the same. — Clarence Thomas

The White House said today that Judge Clarence Thomas, President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, had smoked marijuana while in college. — Clarence Thomas

The poets of each generation seldom sing a new song. They turn to themes men always have loved, and sing them in the mode of their times. — Clarence Day

Well, I'II tell ya, it makes no difference if you came from the city. And it don't matter if you came from the country. And some of you out there within the sound of my voice may have come from the suburbs. — Clarence Carter

Fear is the polio of the soul which prevents our walking by faith. — Clarence Jordan

I think, though, if I had to look at the role of government and what it does in people's lives, I see the EEOC as having much more legitimacy than the others, if properly run. — Clarence Thomas

If your parents didn't have any children, there is a good chance that you won't have any. — Clarence Day Jr.

Celtic fans are some of the greatest supporters I know. — Clarence Seedorf

The most powerful of men can fail when they forget that a mighty river can be crossed at its source. — Clarence H. Burns

To think is to differ. — Clarence Darrow

Good God, Clarence! You look like a bereaved tapeworm. — P.G. Wodehouse

The egg it is the source of all To everyone's ancestral hall. — Clarence Day