Clarence Darrow QUOTES

41 " The purpose of man is like the purpose of a pollywog - to wiggle along as far as he can without dying; or, to hang to life until death takes him. "

― Clarence Darrow

42 " I have never killed anyone, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction. "

― Clarence Darrow

43 " The true man neither guiltily conceals nor anxiously explains nor vulgarly parades. "

― Clarence Darrow , Why I Am an Agnostic and Other Essays

44 " this is life and all there is of life; to play the game, to play the cards we get; play them uncomplainingly and play them to the end. the playing of the game is the foregetting of self and play it bravely to the end "

― Clarence Darrow , The Essential Words and Writings of Clarence Darrow

45 " The first half of our lives are ruined by our parents and the second half by our children. "

― Clarence Darrow

46 " Money has been the most serious handicap that we have ever met. There are times when poverty is fortunate "

― Clarence Darrow , Closing Arguments: Clarence Darrow on Religion, Law, and Society

47 " Nature knows nothing about right and wrong, good and evil, pleasure and pain; she simply acts. She creates a beautiful woman, and places a cancer on her cheek. She may create an idealist, and kill him with a germ. She creates a fine mind, and then burdens it with a deformed body. And she will create a fine body, apparently for no use whatever. She may destroy the most wonderful life when its work has just commenced. She may scatter tubercular germs broadcast throughout the world. She seemingly works with no method, plan or purpose. She knows no mercy nor goodness. Nothing is so cruel and abandoned as Nature. To call her tender or charitable is a travesty upon words and a stultification of intellect. No one can suggest these obvious facts without being told that he is not competent to judge Nature and the God behind Nature. If we must not judge God as evil, then we cannot judge God as good. In all the other affairs of life, man never hesitates to classify and judge, but when it comes to passing on life, and the responsibility of life, he is told that it must be good, although the opinion beggars reason and intelligence and is a denial of both. Emotionally, I shall no doubt act as others do to the last moment of my existence. With my last breath I shall probably try to draw another, but, intellectually, I am satisfied that life is a serious burden, which no thinking, humane person would wantonly inflict on some one else. "

― Clarence Darrow , The Story of My Life

48 " The error I found in the philosophy of Henry George was its cocksureness, its simplicity, and the small value that it placed upon the selfish motives of men. The doctrine was a hang-over from the seventeenth century in France, when the philosophers had given up the idea of God, but still thought that there must be some immovable basis for man’s conduct and ideals. In this dilemma they evolved the theory of natural rights. If ‘natural rights’ means anything it means that the individual rights are to be determined by the conduct of Nature. But Nature knows nothing about rights in the sense of human conception. "

― Clarence Darrow

49 " 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 , Industrial Conspiracies

50 " Your book, 'The Tyranny of God,' is well done. It is a very clear statement of the question, bold and true beyond dispute. I am glad that you wrote it. It is as plain as the multiplication table, which doesn't mean that everyone will believe it. I thank you for writing it. I wish I were the author.

{Preface to 'The Tyranny of God by Joseph Lewis} "

― Clarence Darrow

51 " The love of nature comes with maturing years and is one of the few compensations for growing old. "

― Clarence Darrow

52 " When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I’m beginning to believe it. "

― Clarence Darrow

53 " No law was ever made by the people; they are made for the people "

― Clarence Darrow , Industrial Conspiracies

54 " Some of you say religion makes people happy. So does laughing gas. So does whiskey. I believe in the brain of man. I'm not worried about my soul. "

― Clarence Darrow

55 " When they want a working man for anything excepting work they want him for conspiracy. "

― Clarence Darrow , Industrial Conspiracies

56 " The fear of God is not the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the death of wisdom. "

― Clarence Darrow

57 " Common experience shows how much rarer is moral courage than physical bravery. A thousand men will march to the mouth of the cannon where one man will dare espouse an unpopular cause. "

― Clarence Darrow

58 " This book comes from the reflections and experience of more than forty years spent in court. Aside from the practice of my profession, the topics I have treated are such as have always held my interest and inspired a taste for books that discuss the human machine with its manifestations and the causes of its varied activity. "

― Clarence Darrow , Crime: Its Cause and Treatment

59 " There is no such thing as justice - in or our of court. "

― Clarence Darrow

60 " We are marching backwards to the glorious age of the sixteenth century when bigots lighted fagots to burn men who dared to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and culture to the human mind. "

― Clarence Darrow

1
2
3
4