Clarence Darrow

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Clarence Darrow (April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer, best known for having defended teenaged thrill killers Leopold and Loeb in their trial for murdering 14 year old Bobby Franks (1924) and defending John T. Scopes in the so-called "Monkey" Trial (1925), opposing the famous prosecutor William Jennings Bryan.

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With all their faults, trade-unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in man, than any other association of men.
- The Railroad Trainman (November 1909)

The objector and the rebel who raises his voice against what he believes to be the injustice of the present and the wrongs of the past is the one who hunches the world along.
- Address to the court in"The Communist Trial", People v. Lloyd (1920)

You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free.
- Address to the court in"The Communist Trial", People v. Lloyd (1920)

The Constitution is a delusion and a snare if the weakest and humblest man in the land cannot be defended in his right to speak and his right to think as much as the strongest in the land.
- Address to the court in"The Communist Trial", People v. Lloyd (1920)

I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure — that is all that agnosticism means.
- Scopes Trial, Dayton, Tennessee (13 July 1925)

I don't believe in God because I don't believe in Mother Goose.
- Speech in Toronto (1930)

I have always felt that doubt was the beginning of wisdom, and the fear of God was the end of wisdom.
- The Story of My Life (1932)

I had grown tired of standing in the lean and lonely front line facing the greatest enemy that ever confronted man — public opinion.
- The Story of My Life (1932)

There is no such thing as justice — in or out of court.
- Interview in Chicago (April 1936)

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. I’m beginning to believe it.
- As quoted in Clarence Darrow for the Defence (1941) by Irving Stone

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As long as the world shall last there will be wrongs, and if no man objected and no man rebelled, those wrongs would last forever.

Calvin Coolidge was the greatest man who ever came out of Plymouth Corner, Vermont.

Chase after the truth like all hell and you'll free yourself, even though you never touch its coat-tails.

Even if you do learn to speak correct English, whom are you going to speak it to?

I am an Agnostic because I am not afraid to think. I am not afraid of any god in the universe who would send me or any other man or woman to hell. If there were such a being, he would not be a god; he would be a devil.

I don't like spinach, and I'm glad I don't, because if I liked it I'd eat it, and I just hate it.

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.

I never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with a lot of pleasure.

Liberty is the most jealous and exacting mistress that can beguile the brain and soul of man. From him who will not give her all, she will have nothing. She knows that his pretended love serves but to betray. But when once the fierce heat of her quenchless, lustrous eyes have burned into the victim's heart, he will know no other smile but hers.

Lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for.

Some of you say religion makes people happy. So does laughing gas.

The best that we can do is to be kindly and helpful toward our friends and fellow passengers who are clinging to the same speck of dirt while we are drifting side by side to our common doom.