Clarence Darrow

“I am an agnostic; I do not pretend to know what many ignorant men are sure of.”

“Chase after the truth like all hell and you'll free yourself, even though you never touch its coat tails.”

“The origin of the absurd idea of immortal life is easy to discover; it is kept alive by hope and fear, by childish faith, and by cowardice.”

“The best that we can do is to be kindly and helpful toward our friends and fellow passengers who are clinging to the same speck of dirt while we are drifting side by side to our common doom.”

“Chase after the truth like all hell and you’ll free yourself, even though you never touch its coat tails.”

“Someday I hope to write a book where the royalties will pay for the copies I give away.”

“Justice has nothing to do with what goes on in a courtroom; Justice is what comes out of a courtroom.”

“Depressions may bring people closer to the church but so do funerals.”

“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.”

“To think is to differ.”

“The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business.”

“The world is made up for the most part of morons and natural tyrants, sure of themselves, strong in their own opinions, never doubting anything.”

“I do not believe in God because I do not believe in Mother Goose.”

“I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.”

“Calvin Coolidge was the greatest man who ever came out of Plymouth Corner, Vermont.”

“History repeats itself, and that's one of the things that's wrong with history.”

“The only real lawyers are trial lawyers, and trial lawyers try cases to juries.”

“You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom.”

“I never wanted to see anybody die, but there are a few obituary notices I have read with pleasure.”

“No other offense has ever been visited with such severe penalties as seeking to help the oppressed.”

“The first half of our lives are ruined by our parents and the second half by our children.”

“I don't like spinach, and I'm glad I don't, because if I liked it I'd eat it, and I just hate it.”

“I am a friend of the working man, and I would rather be his friend, than be one.”

“In spite of all the yearnings of men, no one can produce a single fact or reason to support the belief in God and in personal immortality.”

“Were these boys in their right minds? Here were two boys with good intellect, one eighteen and one nineteen. They had all the prospects that life could hold out for any of the young; one a graduate of Chicago and another of Ann Arbor; one who had passed his examination for the Harvard Law School and...”

“Every instinct that is found in any man is in all men. The strength of the emotion may not be so overpowering, the barriers against possession not so insurmountable, the urge to accomplish the desire less keen. With some, inhibitions and urges may be neutralized by other tendencies. But with every b...”

“I have always felt that doubt was the beginning of wisdom, and the fear of God was the end of wisdom.”

“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.”

“Some false representations contravene the law; some do not. ... The sensibilities of no two men are the same. Some would refuse to sell property without carefully explaining all about its merits and defects, and putting themselves in the purchasers' place and inquiring if he himself would buy under...”

“Now, your Honor, I have spoken about the [Civil] war. I believed in it. I don’t know whether I was crazy or not. Sometimes I think perhaps I was. I approved of it; I joined in the general cry of madness and despair. I urged men to fight. I was safe because I was too old to go. I was like the rest. W...”

“I do not pretend to know what many ignorant men are sure of.”

“The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents and the second half by our children.”

“When I was a boy, I was told that anybody could become president. I'm beginning to believe it.”

“The fear of God is not the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the death of wisdom. Skepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom.”

“When we fully understand the brevity of life, its fleeting joys and unavoidable pains; when we accept the facts that all men and women are approaching an inevitable doom: the consciousness of it should make us more kindly and considerate of each other. This feeling should make men and women use thei...”

“Do you, good people, believe that Adam and Eve were created in the Garden of Eden and that they were forbidden to eat from the tree of knowledge? I do. The church has always been afraid of that tree. It still is afraid of knowledge. Some of you say religion makes people happy. So does laughing gas....”

“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.”

“I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure - that is all that agnosticism means.”

“Working people have alot of bad habits, but the worst of these is work.”

“True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else.”

“I have suffered from being misunderstood, but I would have suffered a hell of a lot more if I had been understood.”