American Quotes

The bedrock of our democracy is the rule of law and that means we have to have an independent judiciary, judges who can make decisions independent of the political winds that are blowing.

Sharing the holiday with other people, and feeling that you're giving of yourself, gets you past all the commercialism.

John and I were lucky because our mother was a strong woman with high expectations and a strong sense of values. She encouraged us to pursue things we were interested in and not think about what other people wanted us to do.

You have to remind kids to stay connected to the meaning of Christmas. Sometimes it takes a little bit of effort, but it's so worth it.

I think my mother... made it clear that you have to live life by your own terms and you have to not worry about what other people think and you have to have the courage to do the unexpected.

As much as we need a prosperous economy, we also need a prosperity of kindness and decency.

It's true, Christmas can feel like a lot of work, particularly for mothers. But when you look back on all the Christmases in your life, you'll find you've created family traditions and lasting memories. Those memories, good and bad, are really what help to keep a family together over the long haul.

You have plaintiffs attorneys, you have defense attorneys. So there is no unified bar that will protect a particular judge who has made a courageous decision that's unpopular.

We must never lose sight of the fact that the law has a moral foundation, and we must never fail to ask ourselves not only what the law is, but what the law should be.

The remedy for speech that is false is speech that is true. This is the ordinary course in a free society. The response to the unreasoned is the rational; to the uninformed, the enlightened; to the straight-out lie, the simple truth.

The case for freedom, the case for our constitutional principles the case for our heritage has to be made anew in each generation. The work of freedom is never done.

Sometimes it is easy... to enhance your prestige by not exercising your responsibility, but that's not been the tradition of the court.

No one questions the validity, the urgency, the essentiality of the Voting Rights Act.

In the political context fair means somebody that will vote for the unions or for the business. It can't mean that in the judicial context or we're in real trouble.

I do not think that we should select judges based on a particular philosophy as opposed to temperament, commitment to judicial neutrality and commitment to other more constant values as to which there is general consensus.

Democracy is something that you must learn each generation. It has to be taught.

Asking questions is an essential part of police investigation. In the ordinary sense a police officer is free to ask a person for identification without implicating the Fourth Amendment.

The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is beside the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.

As the Constitution endures, persons in every generation can invoke its principles in their own search for greater freedom.

I've never tried to define my states of mind when I write.

I get excited by landscape.

The very concept of history implies the scholar and the reader. Without a generation of civilized people to study history, to preserve its records, to absorb its lessons and relate them to its own problems, history, too, would lose its meaning.

The accords were fig leaves of democratic procedure to hide the nakedness of Stalinist dictatorship.

One sometimes feels a guest of one's time and not a member of its household.

The best an American can look forward to is the lonely pleasure of one who stands at long last on a chilly and inhospitable mountaintop where few have been before, where few can follow and where few will consent to believe he has been.

Heroism is endurance for one moment more.

The best thing we can do if we want the Russians to let us be Americans is to let the Russians be Russian.

I stole comic books from my brother when I was a kid, but I was never like an avid fan. I can't claim to be like a comic book geek.

I started auditioning when I was about 10 and I didn't get my first job until I was 12, and two years at that age is really hard.

I rarely get recognised. It's always a shock when someone notices me. I always think they must be confusing me with someone else.