Clarence Darrow

“If every man who passed an unjust judgment on his fellow should be condemned, how many judges would be found so vain and foolish as to review and condemn their Maker’s work?”

“The first half of our lives are ruined by our parents and the second half by our children.”

“I am a friend of the working man, and I would rather be his friend, than be one.”

“The fear of God is not the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the death of wisdom. Skepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom.”

“Do you, good people, believe that Adam and Eve were created in the Garden of Eden and that they were forbidden to eat from the tree of knowledge? I do. The church has always been afraid of that tree. It still is afraid of knowledge. Some of you say religion makes people happy. So does laughing gas. So does whiskey. I believe in the brain of man.”

“Some false representations contravene the law; some do not. ... The sensibilities of no two men are the same. Some would refuse to sell property without carefully explaining all about its merits and defects, and putting themselves in the purchasers' place and inquiring if he himself would buy under the circumstances. But such men never would be prosperous merchants.”

“Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt.”

“Laws should be like clothes. They should be made to fit the people they serve.”

“I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.”

“The pursuit of truth will set you free; even if you never catch up with it.”

“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.”

“The world is made up for the most part of morons and natural tyrants, sure of themselves, strong in their own opinions, never doubting anything.”

“I believe that religion is the belief in future life and in God. I don't believe in either. I don't believe in God as I don’t believe in Mother Goose.”

“To think is to differ.”

“There is no such thing as justice - in or out of court.”

“Sympathy is the child of imagination”

“None meet life honestly and few heroically.”

“You can only be free if I am free.”

“I have suffered from being misunderstood, but I would have suffered a hell of a lot more if I had been understood.”

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