Laws should be interpreted in a liberal sense so that their intention may be preserved.

On the whole, we think of our consumers – other judges, lawyers, the public. The law that the Supreme Court establishes is the law that they must live by, so all things considered, it’s better to have it clearer than confusing.

You’re innocent until proven guilty.

A punishment to some, to some a gift, and to many a favor.

Life is so short. I would rather sing one song than interpret the thousand.

Obama has no way to conceal that Osama was executed in front of his children and wives, who are now under the custody of the authorities of Pakistan, a Muslim country of almost 200 million inhabitants, whose laws have been violated, its national dignity offended, and its religious traditions desecrated.

As soon as I hear a sound, it always suggests a mood to me.

Gravity must be caused by an Agent acting constantly according to certain laws, but whether this Agent be material or immaterial I have left to the consideration of my readers.

Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation.

The law is reason, free from passion.

Arizona presents no specific reason for excepting capital defendants from the constitutional protections extended to defendants generally, and none is readily apparent.

You don’t send people to prison on the basis of what other people imagine, or on the basis of media sound bites like ‚shooting an unarmed child,‘ when that ‚child‘ was beating him bloody.

I entirely concur in the propriety of resorting to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation. In that sense alone it is the legitimate Constitution.

Free speech has been used by the Supreme Court to give immense power to the wealthiest members of our society.

How accurately can the law fix the crime? There has to be a mechanism for very fast action. The law is like this: catch them and punish them.

The jury consist of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.

People look at the same passage, and one person will say this is the best thing he’s ever read, and another person will say it’s absolutely idiotic. I mean, there’s no way to reconcile those two things. You just have to forget the whole business of what people are saying.

The clearest way to show what the rule of law means to us in everyday life is to recall what has happened when there is no rule of law.

The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it’s dead for you.

Judges ought to be more leaned than witty, more reverent than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.

I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.

What is history but a fable agreed upon?

No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means.

Justice is expensive in America. There are no Free Passes… You might want to remember this, the next time you get careless and blow off a few Parking Tickets. They will come back to haunt you the next time you see a Cop car in your rear-view mirror.

It is a fundamental principle of criminal law that an imputed offense must correspond exactly to the type of crime described by law. If no law applies exactly to the point in question, then there is no offense.

Lyrics are always misleading because they make people think that that’s what the music is about.

I would be a liar, a hypocrite, or a fool – and I’m not any of those – to say that I don’t write for the reader. I do. But for the reader who hears, who really will work at it, going behind what I seem to say. So I write for myself and that reader who will pay the dues.

One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.

Humans cannot avoid trying to influence others. Everything we say or do is examined and interpreted by others for clues as to our intentions.

Law is mind without reason.

It’s hard not to have a big year at the Supreme Court.

If you believe in science, like I do, you believe that there are certain laws that are always obeyed.

Woe to the makers of literal translations, who by rendering every word weaken the meaning! It is indeed by so doing that we can say the letter kills and the spirit gives life.

Justice Scalia and I served together on the D.C. Circuit. So his votes are not surprising to me. What I like about him is that he’s very funny and very smart.

When police or prosecutors conceal significant exculpatory or impeaching material, we hold, it is ordinarily incumbent on the state to set the record straight.

One and the same thing can at the same time be good, bad, and indifferent, e.g., music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf.

Nobody is above the law. Imagine if there allegations against Modi and he is the Prime Minister. Should the case not be pursued just because he has become the PM. It should not be so that it should be stopped. I am not above the law.

Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this.

History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.

I do hope that some of my dissents will one day be the law.

And all who told it added something new, and all who heard it, made enlargements too.

What we need to understand is that when traditions become laws, rules, obligations and expectations others put on us that we don’t want to fulfill, then they lose real meaning and steal the joy from our lives. And if we’re too religious, we won’t be able to be led by the Holy Spirit and enjoy an intimate relationship with Him.

Law, without force, is impotent.

It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves.

One of the peculiarities of Delhi is that the term ‚reform‘ is associated only with passing of laws in Parliament. In fact, the most important reforms are those needed, without new laws, at various level of the government, in work practices and procedures.

There’s nothing hippie about my picture of Christ. The Gospels paint a picture of a very demanding, sometimes divisive love, but love it is.

Every picture has its own demands, and every picture stimulates something within you to tell it a certain way. I don’t know what that is; I don’t think too much about that.

I’m rather kind of old school, thinking that when an artist does his work, it’s no longer his… I just see what people make of it.

Liberal: a power worshipper without power.

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

I’ve always been very liberal when it comes to people thinking for themselves.

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.

The 14th Amendment was recognized right away to be problematic. The concept of person was both too narrow and too broad, and the courts went to work to overcome both of those flaws.

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.

You make a movie, and if somebody reads something into it, then great, more power to him.

No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.

Laws made by common consent must not be trampled on by individuals.

If a work of art is rich and vital and complete, those who have artistic instincts will see its beauty, and those to whom ethics appeal more strongly than aesthetics will see its moral lesson. It will fill the cowardly with terror, and the unclean will see in it their own shame.

Due process should matter.

And whether you’re an honest man, or whether you’re a thief, depends on whose solicitor has given me my brief.

A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.