23 quotes
While democracy must have its organizations and controls, its vital breath is individual liberty.
Our institutions were not devised to bring about uniformity of opinion; if they had we might well abandon hope.
No greater mistake can be made than to think that our institutions are fixed or may not be changed for the worse.
Conditions of Progress in Democratic Government (1909)
When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free.
The peril of this Nation is not in any foreign foe! We, the people, are its power, its peril, and its hope!
Conditions of Progress in Democratic Government (1909)
I think that it is a fallacy to suppose that helpful cooperation in the future will be assured by the attempted compulsion of an inflexible rule.
A man has to live with himself, and he should see to it that he always has good company.
Ethics and Citizenship (1924)
The most ominous spirit of our times, as it seems to me, is the indication of the growth of an intolerent spirit.
There is no path to peace except as the will of peoples may open to it. The way of peace is through agreement, not through force.
The Pathway of Peace (1923)
Freedom of expression gives the essential democratic opportunity, but self-restraint is the essential civic discipline.
Charles Evans Hughes (1951)
We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is, and the judiciary is the safeguard of our liberty and of our property under the Constitution.
At the constitutional level where we work, ninety percent of any decision is emotional. The rational part of us supplies the reasons for supporting our predilections.
We still proclaim the old ideals of liberty but we cannot voice them without anxiety in our hearts. The question is no longer one of establishing democratic institutions but of preserving them.
Charles Evans Hughes (1951)
Great powers agreeing among themselves may indeed hold small powers in check. But who will hold great powers in check when great powers disagree?
The Pathway of Peace (1923)
The pathway of peace is the longest and most beset with obstacles the human race has to tread; the goal may be distant, but we must press on.
The Pathway of Peace (1923)
[Dissents are] appeals to the brooding spirit of the law, to the intelligence of another day.
The liberty of the press is not confined to newspapers and periodicals. It necessarily embraces pamphlets and leaflets. … the press in its historic connotation comprehends every sort of publication which affords a vehicle of information and opinion.
Time has shown how illusory are alliances of great powers so far as the maintenance of peace is concerned.
In considering the use of international force to secure peace, we are again brought to the fundamental necessity of common accord.
The Pathway of Peace (1923)
Selfishness and demagoguery take advantage of liberty. The selfish hand constantly seeks to control government, and every increase of governmental power, even to meet just needs, furnishes opportunity for abuse and stimulates the effort to bend it to improper uses.
Conditions of Progress in Democratic Government (1909)
It is no longer open to doubt that the liberty of the press, and of speech, is within the liberty safeguarded by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment from invasion by state action. It was found impossible to conclude that this essential personal liberty of the citizen was left unprotected by the general guaranty of fundamental rights of person and property.