Robert Jackson

“We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final.”

“The places that are most likely to grow trees for carbon sequestration are places where trees aren't growing now.”

“It is in the country's best interest that Tony Blair rather than Michael Howard should form the next government.”

“It is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.”

“To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary... is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds.”

“The petitioner's problem is to avoid Scylla without being drawn into Charybdis.”

“But freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order.”

“When the Supreme Court moved to Washington in 1800, it was provided with no books, which probably accounts for the high quality of early opinions.”

“If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act.”

“Men are more often bribed by their loyalties and ambitions than by money.”

“We can afford no liberties with liberty itself.”

“Freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter mush. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order.”

“Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard.”

“The day that this country ceases to be free for irreligion, it will cease to be free for religion.”

“Microbes are doing things we didn't even know they could do 10 years ago.”