Marshall Harlan Quotes & Sayings

This is the antinomy: insofar as we believe in morality we pass sentence on existence. — Friedrich Nietzsche

[O]ne man's vulgarity is another's lyric. — John Marshall Harlan

We cannot sanction the view that the Constitution, while solicitous of the cognitive content of individual speech, has little or no regard for that emotive function which, practically speaking, may often be the more important element of the overall message sought to be communicated. — John Marshall Harlan II

Privacy in one's associations ... may in many circumstances be indispensable to freedom of association, particularly where a group espouses dissident beliefs. — John Marshall Harlan II

One man's vulgarity is another man's lyric. — John Marshall Harlan II

He grieved too, Klara said, for the loss of a certain idea of himself. — Julie Orringer

The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. — John Marshall Harlan

But in view of the constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. — John Marshall Harlan

The sure guaranty of the peace and security of each race is the clear, distinct, unconditional recognition by our governments, national and state, of every right that inheres in civil freedom, and of the equality before the law of all citizens of the United States, without regard to race. State enactments regulating the enjoyment of civil rights upon the basis of race, and cunningly devised to defeat legitimate results of the war, under the pretense of recognizing equality of rights, can have no other result than to render permanent peace impossible, and to keep alive a conflict of races, the continuance of which must do harm to all concerned. — John Marshall Harlan

There's more to life than basketball. The most important thing is your family and taking care of each other and loving each other no matter what. — Stephen Curry

The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved. — John Marshall Harlan

Life is about decisions, so quit blaming someone else for the bad choices you make. — Karen Beaudin

The Constitution is not a panacea for every blot upon the public welfare. Nor should this Court, ordained as a judicial body, be thought of as a general haven for reform movements. — John Marshall Harlan

The constitutional right of free expression ... is designed and intended to remove governmental restraints from the arena of public discussion, putting the decision as to what views shall be voiced in the hands of each of us, in the hope that the use of such freedom will ultimately produce a more capable citizenry and more perfect polity and in the belief that no other approach would comport with the premise of individual dignity and choice upon which our political systems rests. — John Marshall Harlan II

The dissemination of the individual's opinions on matters of public interest is for us, in the historic words of the Declaration of Independence, an 'unalienable right' that 'governments are instituted among men to secure.' History shows us that the Founders were not always convinced that unlimited discussion of public issues would be 'for the benefit of all of us' but that they firmly adhered to the proposition that the 'true liberty of the press' permitted 'every man to publish his opinion'. — John Marshall Harlan II

Following is a rant by a confused crazy kid (the protagonist), where he references some movie scene but by the end there is some deep philosophy ( in the last paragraph)
There was this one part where the main character, who is this architect, is sitting on a boat with his best friend, who is a newspaper tycoon. And the newspaper tycoon says that the architect is a very cold man. The architect replies that if the boat were sinking, and there was only room in the lifeboat for one person, he would gladly give up his life for the newspaper tycoon. And then he says something like this ...
"I would die for you. But I won't live for you."
Something like that. I think the idea is that every person has to live for his or her own life and then make the choice to share it with other people. Maybe that is what makes people "participate." I'm not really certain. — Stephen Chbosky