No written law has ever been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion. In other words, people will always say and do what their neighbours say and do, no matter what the law allows or forbids or has nothing to say on a subject.
All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone, you leave things as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone, you leave it to a torrent of change.
The Fifth Amendment is an old friend and a good friend. It is one of the great landmarks in man’s struggle to be free of tyranny, to be decent and civilized.
The conduct of a losing party never appears right: at least it can never possess the only infallible criterion of wisdom to vulgar judgements---success.
Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped. Let me repeat in a slightly different way: genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not similarly handicapped.
Few trends could so thoroughly undermine the very foundations of our free society as the acceptance by corporate officials of a social responsibility other than to make as much money for their shareholders as possible. Put another way, making dividends for shareholders is the sole task of corporate management. Forcing any social responsibility on corporations would undermine our free society.
Trickle down theory---the less than elegant metaphor that if one feeds the horse enough oats, some will pass through [the horse] to the road for the sparrows.
When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstone of our judgement.
To the extent that a democratic society gives its citizens the chance to speak in their own voices and listens to what they have to say, it gives itself the chance not only of discovering its multiple glories and triumphs but also of surviving its multiple follies and crimes.
Stupidity, outrage, vanity, cruelty, iniquity, bad faith, falsehood---we fail to see the whole array when it is facing in the same direction as we [are].
