Earl Warren Quotes

"I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures."

"In civilized life, law floats in a sea of ethics."

"If it is a mistake of the head and not the heart don't worry about it, that's the way we learn."

"Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile, I caught hell for."

"The most tragic paradox of our time is to be found in the failure of nation-states to recognize the imperatives of internationalism."

"It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive."

"To separate children from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone."

"The police must obey the law while enforcing the law."

"Prior to any questioning, the person must be warned that he has a right to remain silent, that any statement he does make may be used as evidence against him and that he has a right to the presence of an attorney, either retained or appointed."

"We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place."

"Ben Franklin may have discovered electricity- but it is the man who invented the meter who made the money."

"Many people consider the things government does for them to be social progress but they regard the things government does for others as socialism."

"In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education."

"Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."

"I feel that the greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more."

"Liberty, not communism, is the most contagious force in the world."

"To get what you want, STOP doing what isn't working."

"Legislatures represent people, not acres or trees."

"Life and liberty can be as much endangered from illegal methods used to convict those thought to be criminals as from the actual criminals themselves."

"I hate banks. They do nothing positive for anybody except take care of themselves. They're first in with their fees and first out when there's trouble."

"There is no requirement that police stop a person who enters a police station and states that he wishes to confess a crime or a person who calls the police to offer a confession because volunteered statements of any kind are not barred by the 5th Amendment."

"In mid-life the man wants to see how irresistible he still is to younger women. How they turn their hearts to stone and more or less commit a murder of their marriage I just don't know, but they do."

"If Nixon is not forced to turn over tapes of his conversations with the ring of men who were conversing on their violations of the law, then liberty will soon be dead in this nation."

"We may not know the whole story in our lifetime."

"You sit up there, and you see the whole gamut of human nature. Even if the case being argued involves only a little fellow and $50, it involves justice. That's what is important."

"All provisions of federal, state or local law requiring or permitting discrimination in public education must yield."

"The old Court you and I served so long will not be worthy of its traditions if Nixon can twist, turn and fashion If Nixon gets away with that, then Nixon makes the law as he goes along - not the Congress nor the courts."

"Before this distinguished assembly and the world, the bells today proclaim the joyous tidings of the completion of this quietly soaring tower."

"The censor's sword pierces deeply into the heart of free expression."

"Ben Franklin may have discovered electricity- but it is the man who invented the meter who made the money."