A biography for Alan Dershowitzhasn’t been written yet.
“I never do anything for money; I get paid a lot of money as a by-product.”
“If you're a prosecutor, and you believe the defendant is guilty, you only talk about ultimate truth, but not intermediate truth. If you're the defense attorney, you care deeply about intermediate truth, but you tend to neglect ultimate truth.”
“When I decide who to vote for as president, I ask myself who will be best for America and for the world. An important component of my answer involves my assessment of the candidate's willingness and ability to protect Israel's security, since I strongly believe that a strong Israel serves the interests of the United States and of world peace.”
“The threat or fear of violence should not become an excuse or justification for restricting freedom of speech.”
“It's wrong, and it's racist, and it's bigoted to say that guns are quintessentially American.”
“There are many levels of truth.”
“We all learn in school that the judicial, legislative and executive branches of government must check and balance each other. But other non state institutions must participate in this important system of checks and balances as well. These checking institutions include the academy, the media, religious institutions and NGOs.”
“I think mistakes are the essence of science and law. It's impossible to conceive of either scientific progress or legal progress without understanding the important role of being wrong and of mistakes.”
“Laws are important precisely because in a democracy they reflect the attitudes and aspirations of those they govern.”
“Every celebrity case I've been involved in - I've been involved in a great many - the one thing you can be sure of is they don't get the same justice as everybody else. It could be worse, it could be better, it's never the same.”
“The same independence that got me into trouble in high school got me praise in college.”
“Israel can't make peace without the clear support of the United States.”
“It's never acceptable to target civilians. It violates the Geneva Accords, it violates the international law of war and it violates all principles of morality.”
“I'm never satisfied unless I get the last word.”
“No country in the history of the world has ever contributed more to humankind and accomplished more for its people in so brief a period of time as Israel has done since its relatively recent rebirth in 1948.”
“My goal is always to keep support for Israel a bi-partisan issue and never make a national election any kind of referendum on Israel.”
“Juries are not computers. They are composed of human beings who evaluate evidence differently.”
“A visit to Israel is always an experience in cognitive dissonance. The Israel you personally see and hear is so completely different from the Israel you read and hear about in the media.”
“In the Pentagon Papers case, the government asserted in the Supreme Court that the publication of the material was a threat to national security. It turned out it was not a threat to U.S. security. But even if it had been, that doesn't mean that it couldn't be published.”
“I think most defense attorneys honestly believe the principle that says, 'Better 10 guilty go free than even one possibly innocent person be convicted.'”