Clarence Darrow Quotes
April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938
More Clarence Darrow Quotes
In the great flood of human life that is spawned upon the earth, it is not often that a man is born.
Clarence Darrow— Funeral oration for John Peter Altgeld (14 March 1902); published in an appendix to The Story of My Life (1932)
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 man, than any other association of men.
Clarence Darrow— The Railroad Trainman (November 1909)
The objector and the rebel who raises his voice against what he believes to be the injustice of the present and the wrongs of the past is the one who hunches the world along.
Clarence Darrow— Address to the court in "The Communist Trial", People v. Lloyd (1920)
You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free.
Clarence Darrow— Address to the court in People v. Lloyd (1920)
The Constitution is a delusion and a snare if the weakest and humblest man in the land cannot be defended in his right to speak and his right to think as much as the strongest in the land.
Clarence Darrow— Address to the court in People v. Lloyd (1920)
I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure — that is all that agnosticism means.
Clarence Darrow— Scopes Trial, Dayton, Tennessee (13 July 1925)
All men do the best they can. But none meet life honestly and few heroically.
Clarence Darrow— As quoted in Infidels and Heretics : An Agnostic's Anthology (1929) edited by Clarence Darrow and Wallace Rice, p. 206
I don't believe in God because I don't believe in Mother Goose.
Clarence Darrow— Speech in Toronto (1930); as quoted in "Breaking the Last Taboo" (1996) by James A. Haught.
— Variant: 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.As quoted in Jesus: Myth Or Reality? (2006) by Ian Curtis
Religion is the belief in future life and in God. I don't believe in either.
Clarence Darrow— As quoted in The New York Times (19 April 1936)
There is no such thing as justice — in or out of court.
Clarence Darrow— Interview in Chicago (April 1936)
Chase after the truth like all hell and you’ll free yourself, even though you never touch its coat tails.
Clarence Darrow— The Sign (May 1938) This has been misquoted as: The pursuit of truth will set you free; even if you never catch up with it.
I feel as I always have, that the earth is the home and the only home of man, and I am convinced that whatever he is to get out of his existence he must get while he is here.
Clarence Darrow— As quoted in a eulogy for Darrow by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius (1938)
I am an Agnostic because I am not afraid to think. I am not afraid of any god in the universe who would send me or any other man or woman to hell. If there were such a being, he would not be a god; he would be a devil.
Clarence Darrow— As quoted in a eulogy for Darrow by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius (1938)
Calvin Coolidge was the greatest man who ever came out of Plymouth Corner, Vermont.
Clarence Darrow— As quoted in Foundations of Democracy: A Series of Debates (1939) by Thomas Vernor Smith and Robert Alphonso Taft, p. 10
When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. I’m beginning to believe it.
Clarence Darrow— As quoted in Clarence Darrow for the Defense (1941) by Irving Stone, Ch. 6
History repeats itself. That's one of the things wrong with history.
Clarence Darrow— As quoted in Peter's Quotations: Ideas For Our Time (1977) edited by Laurence J. Peter, p. 248
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.
Clarence Darrow— As quoted in American Dream, a Search for Justice (2003) by Sherman D. Manning, p. 125
Hell, that's why they make erasers.
Clarence Darrow— On mistakes, reported in Irving Stone, Clarence Darrow for the Defense (1941), p. 75.
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.
Clarence Darrow— Ch. 1 "Before The Beginning"
I have always felt that doubt was the beginning of wisdom, and the fear of God was the end of wisdom.
Clarence Darrow— Ch. 4 "Called To The Bar"
I had grown tired of standing in the lean and lonely front line facing the greatest enemy that ever confronted man — public opinion.
Clarence Darrow— Ch. 27 "The Loeb-Leopold Tragedy" (p. 232)
I was truly sorry for Mr. Bryan. But I consoled myself by thinking of the years through which he had busied himself tormenting intelligent professors with impudent questions about their faith, and seeking to arouse the ignoramuses and bigots to drive them out of their positions.
Clarence Darrow— p. 267 (The Story of My Life (1932))
I had grown tired of standing in the lean and lonely front line facing the greatest enemy that ever confronted man public opinion.
Clarence Darrow— Clarence Darrow, The Story of My Life (1932), p. 232.
