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Some False Representations Contravene The Law; Some Do Not. The Law Does Not Pretend To Punish Everything That Is Dishonest. That Would Seriously Interfere With Business, And, Besides, Could Not Be Done. The Line Between Honesty And Dishonesty Is A Narrow, Shifting One And Usually Lets Those Get By That Are The Most Subtle And Already Have More Than They Can Use.

-Clarence Darrow

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Some False Representations Contravene

Clarence Darrow

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Some False Representations Contravene The Law; Some Do Not. The Law Does Not Pretend To Punish Everything That Is Dishonest. That Would Seriously Interfere With Business, And, Besides, Could Not Be Done. The Line Between Honesty And Dishonesty Is A Narrow, Shifting One And Usually Lets Those Get By That Are The Most Subtle And Already Have More Than They Can Use.

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I Have Lived My Life, And I Have Fought My Battles, Not Against The Weak And The Poor - Anybody Can Do That - But Against Power, Against Injustice, Against Oppression, And I Have Asked No Odds From Them, And I Never Shall.

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We Are Turning Our Prisons Into Living Tombs, Inhabited By Doomed Men Living In Everlasting Blank Despair.

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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.

There Is No Such Crime As A Crime Of Thought; There Are Only Crimes Of Action.

Instead Of Yielding To Idle Conversation It Might Profit One To Cultivate Silence And Contemplation.

Autobiography Is Never Entirely True. No One Can Get The Right Perspective On Himself. Every Fact Is Colored By Imagination And Dream.

Most Lawyers Only Tell You About The Cases They Win. I Can Tell You About Some I Lose. A Lawyer Who Wins All His Cases Does Not Have Many.

The Nation That Would To-day Disarm Its Soldiers And Turn Its People To The Paths Of Peace Would Accomplish More To Its Building Up Than By All The War Taxes Wrong From Its Hostile And Unwilling Serfs

Every One Knows That The Heavenly Bodies Move In Certain Paths In Relation To Each Other With Seeming Consistency And Regularity Which We Call [physical] Law. ... No One Attributes Freewill Or Motive To The Material World. Is The Conduct Of Man Or The Other Animals Any More Subject To Whim Or Choice Than The Action Of The Planets? ... We Know That Man's Every Act Is Induced By Motives That Led Or Urged Him Here Or There; That The Sequence Of Cause And Effect Runs Through The Whole Universe, And Is Nowhere More Compelling Than With Man.

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I Have Suffered From Being Misunderstood, But I Would Have Suffered A Hell Of A Lot More If I Had Been Understood.

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Most Jury Trials Are Contests Between The Rich And Poor.

Chase After The Truth Like All Hell And You'll Free Yourself, Even Though You Never Touch Its Coat Tails.

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A Prison Is Confining To The Body, But Whether It Affects The Mind, Depends Entirely Upon The Mind.

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The Origin Of The Absurd Idea Of Immortal Life Is Easy To Discover; It Is Kept Alive By Hope And Fear, By Childish Faith, And By Cowardice.

If You Lose The Power To Laugh, You Lose The Power To Think.

The Time Will Come When All People Will View With Horror Light Way In Which Society And Its Courts Of Law Now Take Human Life; And When That Time Comes, The Way Will Be Clear To Device Some Better Method Of Dealing With Poverty And Ignorance And Their Frequent Byproducts, Which We Call Crime.

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Calvin Coolidge Was The Greatest Man Who Ever Came Out Of Plymouth Corner, Vermont.

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True Patriotism Hates Injustice In Its Own Land More Than Anywhere Else.

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Probably The Undertaker Thinks Less Of Death Than Almost Any Other Man. He Is So Accustomed To It That His Mind Must Involuntarily Turn From Its Horror To A Contemplation Of How Much He Makes Out Of The Burial.

The Most Human Thing We Can Do Is Comfort The Afflicted And Afflict The Comfortable.

The Truth Is Always Modern And There Never Comes A Time When It Is Safe To Give It Voice.

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 Men, Than Any Other Association Of Men.

I Don't Believe In God Because I Don't Believe In Mother Goose.

It Is Bigotry For Public Schools To Teach Only One Theory Of Origins.

No Man Is A Good Citizen, A Good Neighbor, A Good Friend, Or A Good Man Just Because He Obeys The Law. The Intrinsic Worth Is Determined Mainly By The Intrinsic Make-up.

You Can Only Be Free If I Am Free.

I Had A Vivid Imagination. Not Only Could I Put Myself In The Other Person's Place, But I Could Not Avoid Doing So. My Sympathies Always Went Out To The Weak, The Suffering, And The Poor. Realizing Their Sorrows I Tried To Relieve Them In Order That I Myself Might Be Relieved.

Vivid Imagination

The Trouble With Law Is Lawyers.

Everything Serious That He Says Is A Joke And Everything Humorous That He Says Is Dead Serious.

There Is No Such Thing As Justice - In Or Out Of Court.

No Other Offense Has Ever Been Visited With Such Severe Penalties As Seeking To Help The Oppressed.

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The Ablest Lawyers Are Always Associated With The Biggest Fees.

Never Forget, Almost Every Case Has Been Won Or Lost When The Jury Is Sworn.

I Knew That It Is Out Of The Question To Have Honest, Economical Government While A Few Are Inordinately Rich And The Great Mass Of Men Are Poor. In Fact, It Is To Be Doubted If Anything Really Worthwhile Can Be Done Until There Is A Fairer Distribution Of Wealth.

Distribution Of Wealth

The Law Is A Horrible Business.

It Is Indeed Strange That With All The Knowledge We Have Gained In The Past Hundred Years We Preserve And Practice The Methods Of An Ancient And Barbarous World In Our Dealing With Crime. So Long As This Is Observed And Exercised There Can Be No Change Except To Heap More Cruelties And More Wretchedness Upon Those Who Are The Victims Of Our Foolish System.

Men Have Always Been Obliged To Fight To Preserve Liberty. Constitutions And Laws Do Not Safeguard Liberty. It Can Be Preserved Only By A Tolerant People, And This Means Eternal Conflict.

Some False Representations Contravene The Law; Some Do Not. The Law Does Not Pretend To Punish Everything That Is Dishonest. That Would Seriously Interfere With Business, And, Besides, Could Not Be Done. The Line Between Honesty And Dishonesty Is A Narrow, Shifting One And Usually Lets Those Get By That Are The Most Subtle And Already Have More Than They Can Use.

If There Is To Be Any Permanent Improvement In Man And Any Better Social Order, It Must Come Mainly From The Education And Humanizing Of Man.

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Scopes Isn’t On Trial; Civilization Is On Trial.

Justice Must Take Account Of Infinite Circumstances Which A Human Being Cannot Understand.

Any One Who Thinks Is An Agnostic About Something, Otherwise He Must Believe That He Is Possessed Of All Knowledge. And The Proper Place For Such A Person Is In The Madhouse Or The Home For The Feeble-minded.

Every Government On Earth Is The Personification Of Violence And Force, And Yet The Doctine Of Non-resistance Is As Old As Human Thought - Even More Than This, The Instinct Is As Old As Life Upon The Earth.

The Truth Is That Brains Have Little To Do With Either The Making Or Accumulating Of Money.

I Cannot Tell And I Shall Never Know How Many Words Of Mine Might Have Given Birth To Cruelty In Place Of Love And Kindness And Charity.

The Consideration And Kindness Shown By Unfortunates To Each Other Are Surprising To Those Who Have No Experience With This Class Of Men. Often To Find Real Sympathy You Must Go To Those Who Know What Misery Means.

I Am An Agnostic As To The Question Of God.

One Cannot Live Through A Long Stretch Of Years Without Forming Some Philosophy Of Life.

Different Strokes For Different Folks.

The Purpose Of Life Is Living. Men And Women Should Get The Most They Can Out Of Their Lives.

The Audience That Storms The Box-office Of The Theater To Gain Entrance To A Sensational Show Is Small And Sleepy Compared With The Throng That Crashes The Courthouse Door When Something Concerning Real Life And Death Is To Be Laid Bare To The Public.

In Order To Have Enough Freedom, It Is Necessary To Have Too Much.

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Ancestors Do Not Mean So Much. The Rebel Who Succeeds Generally Makes It Easier For The Posterity That Follows Him; So These Descendants Are Usually Contented And Smug And Soft. Rebels Are Made From Life, Not Ancestors.

The Really Intelligent Are As Abnormal As The Defective. The Great Masses Of Men Are Rather Mediocre, And Those Above And Below Are Exceptions.

My Constitution Was Destroyed Long Ago; Now I Am Living Under The Bylaws.

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The Best Way To Understand Somebody Else Is To Put Yourself In His Place.

The Fact That There Is A General Belief In A Future Life Is No Evidence Of Its Truth

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To Say That The Universe Was Here Last Year, Or Millions Of Years Ago, Does Not Explain Its Origin. This Is Still A Mystery. As To The Question Of The Origin Of Things, Man Can Only Wonder And Doubt And Guess.

The First Half Of Our Lives Are Ruined By Our Parents And The Second Half By Our Children.

Do You Think You Can Cure The Hatreds And The Maladjustments Of The World By Hanging Them? You Simply Show Your Ignorance And Your Hate When You Say It. You May Here And There Cure Hatred With Love And Understanding, But You Can Only Add Fuel To The Flames By Cruelty And Hate.

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 . . . True Courage And Manhood Come From The Consciousness Of The Right Attitude Toward The World, The Faith In One's Purpose, And The Sufficiency Of One's Own Approval As A Justification For One's Own Acts.

No Iconoclast Can Possibly Escape The Severest Criticism.

Nothing Is So Loved By Tyrants As Obedient Subjects.

One Believes In The Truthfulness Of A Man Because Of His Long Experience With The Man, And Because The Man Has Always Told A Consistent Story. But No Man Has Told So Consistent A Story As Nature.

I Go To A Better Tailor Than Any Of You And Pay More For My Clothes. The Only Difference Is That You Probably Don't Sleep In Yours.

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All Men Have An Emotion To Kill; When They Strongly Dislike Someone They Involuntarily Wish He Was Dead. I Have Never Killed Any One, But I Have Read Some Obituary Notices With Great Satisfaction.

Dislike Someone

Religion Is Based On The Insistence That Over And Above All Is A Purpose And A Guiding Hand That Is Beneficent And Kind, And Would Not Leave A Hair Unnumbered Or Let A Sparrow Fall Unnoticed To The Ground. Those Who Cherish Such Hallucinations Forget That The All-loving Power Is Inflicting Tuberculosis, Cancer, Famine, And Pestilence On The Trusting, Simple Sons Of Men.

I Do Not Believe In God Because I Do Not Believe In Mother Goose.

Every Instinct That Is Found In Any Man Is In All Men. The Strength Of The Emotion May Not Be So Overpowering, The Barriers Against Possession Not So Insurmountable, The Urge To Accomplish The Desire Less Keen. With Some, Inhibitions And Urges May Be Neutralized By Other Tendencies. But With Every Being The Primal Emotions Are There. All Men Have An Emotion To Kill; When They Strongly Dislike Some One They Involuntarily Wish He Was Dead. I Have Never Killed Any One, But I Have Read Some Obituary Notices With Great Satisfaction.

The Purpose Of Life Is To Live It.

Purpose Of Life

Depressions May Bring People Closer To The Church But So Do Funerals.

I Had Grown Tired Of Standing In The Lean And Lonely Front Line Facing The Greatest Enemy That Ever Confronted Man -- Public Opinion.

Can Any Rational Person Believe That The Bible Is Anything But A Human Document? We Now Know Pretty Well Where The Various Books Came From, And About When They Were Written. We Know That They Were Written By Human Beings Who Had No Knowledge Of Science, Little Knowledge Of Life, And Were Influenced By The Barbarous Morality Of Primitive Times, And Were Grossly Ignorant Of Most Things That Men Know Today.

Laws Have Come Down To Us From Old Customs And Folk-ways Based On Primitive Ideas Of Man's Origin, Capacity And Responsibility.

Physical Deformity, Calls Forth Our Charity. But The Infinite Misfortune Of Moral Deformity Calls Forth Nothing But Hatred And Vengeance.

I Never Wanted To See Anybody Die, But There Are A Few Obituary Notices I Have Read With Pleasure.

To Think Is To Differ.

Chloroform Unfit Children. Show Them The Same Mercy That Is Shown Beasts That Are No Longer Fit To Live.

Thirteen States With A Population Less Than That Of New York State Alone Can Prevent Repeal [of Prohibition] Until Halley's Comet Returns. One Might As Well Talk About A Summer Vacation On Mars.

If There Is A Soul, What Is It, And Where Did It Come From, And Where Does It Go? Can Anyone Who Is Guided By His Reason Possibly Imagine A Soul Independent Of A Body, Or The Place Of Its Residence, Or The Character Of It, Or Anything Concerning It? If Man Is Justified In Any Belief Or Disbelief On Any Subject, He Is Warranted In The Disbelief In A Soul. Not One Scrap Of Evidence Exists To Prove Any Such Impossible Thing.

Lost Causes Are The Only Ones Worth Fighting For.

Religious Doctrines Do Not And Clearly Cannot Be Adopted As The Criminal Code Of A State.

No Nation Can Be Really Great That Is Held Together By Gatling Guns, And No True Loyalty Can Be Induced And Kept Through Fear.

We Are Born And We Die; And Between These Two Most Important Events In Our Lives More Or Less Time Elapses Which We Have To Waste Somehow Or Other. In The End It Does Not Seem To Matter Much Whether We Have Done So In Making Money, Or Practicing Law, Or Reading Or Playing, Or In Any Other Way, As Long As We Felt We Were Deriving A Maximum Of Happiness Out Of Our Doings.

Wars Always Bring About A Conservative Reaction. They Overwhelm And Destroy Patient And Careful Efforts To Improve The Condition Of Man.

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