Top 160 Clarence Darrow Quotes (2024 Update)
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101. “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

102. “Every thought of pity is like the balm of Gilead to our souls.”

— Clarence Darrow

103. “There are two things that kill a genius: a fatal disease and contentment.”

— Clarence Darrow

104. “Anyone can spot a lie, unless he is in need of that lie.”

— Clarence Darrow

105. “It is bigotry for public schools to teach only one theory of origins.”

— Clarence Darrow

106. “The truth is always modern and there never comes a time when it is safe to give it voice.”

— Clarence Darrow

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

— Clarence Darrow

108. “I cannot tell and I shall never know how many words of mine might have given birth to cruelty in place of love and kindness and charity.”

— Clarence Darrow

109. “Education was in danger from the source that always hampered it – religious fanaticism.”

— Clarence Darrow

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

— Clarence Darrow

111. “The consideration and kindness shown by unfortunates to each other are surprising to those who have no experience with this class of men. Often to find real sympathy you must go to those who know what misery means.”

— Clarence Darrow

112. “Nothing is so loved by tyrants as obedient subjects.”

— Clarence Darrow

113. “We are turning our prisons into living tombs, inhabited by doomed men living in everlasting blank despair.”

— Clarence Darrow

114. “Most jury trials are contests between the rich and poor.”

— Clarence Darrow

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

— Clarence Darrow

116. “A prison is confining to the body, but whether it affects the mind, depends entirely upon the mind.”

— Clarence Darrow

117. “The ablest lawyers are always associated with the biggest fees.”

— Clarence Darrow

118. “I go to a better tailor than any of you and pay more for my clothes. The only difference is that you probably don’t sleep in yours.”

— Clarence Darrow

119. “None meet life honestly and few heroically.”

— Clarence Darrow

120. “One cannot live through a long stretch of years without forming some philosophy of life.”

— Clarence Darrow

121. “The truth is, no man is white and no man is black. We are all freckled.”

— Clarence Darrow

122. “The audience that storms the box-office of the theater to gain entrance to a sensational show is small and sleepy compared with the throng that crashes the courthouse door when something concerning real life and death is to be laid bare to the public.”

— Clarence Darrow

123. “Justice must take account of infinite circumstances which a human being cannot understand.”

— Clarence Darrow

124. “I have never killed anyone, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.”

— Clarence Darrow

125. “Eugene V. Debs has always been one of my heroes.”

— Clarence Darrow

126. “It is just as often a great misfortune to be the child of the rich as it is to be the child of the poor. Wealth has its misfortunes. Too much, too great opportunity and advantage given to a child has its misfortunes.”

— Clarence Darrow

127. “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.”

— Clarence Darrow

128. “The time will come when all people will view with horror light way in which society and its courts of law now take human life; and when that time comes, the way will be clear to device some better method of dealing with poverty and ignorance and their frequent byproducts, which we call crime.”

— Clarence Darrow

129. “People in this world are not often logical.”

— Clarence Darrow

130. “When they want a working man for anything excepting work they want him for conspiracy.”

— Clarence Darrow

131. “Men have always been obliged to fight to preserve liberty. Constitutions and laws do not safeguard liberty. It can be preserved only by a tolerant people, and this means eternal conflict.”

— Clarence Darrow

132. “A criminal is someone without the capital to incorporate.”

— Clarence Darrow

133. “My constitution was destroyed long ago; now I am living under the bylaws.”

— Clarence Darrow

134. “The fact that there is a general belief in a future life is no evidence of its truth.”

— Clarence Darrow

135. “In order to have enough freedom, it is necessary to have too much.”

— Clarence Darrow

136. “Some of you say religion makes people happy. So does laughing gas.”

— Clarence Darrow

137. “No law was ever made by the people; they are made for the people.”

— Clarence Darrow

138. “Sympathy is the child of imagination.”

— Clarence Darrow

139. “I am simply an agnostic. I haven’t yet had time or opportunity to explore the universe, and I don’t know what I might run on to in some nook or corner.”

— Clarence Darrow

140. “I am sure of very little, and I shouldn’t be surprised if those things were wrong.”

— Clarence Darrow

141. “Religious doctrines do not and clearly cannot be adopted as the criminal code of a state.”

— Clarence Darrow

142. “The fear of God is not the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the death of wisdom.”

— Clarence Darrow

143. “You can’t get to a pleasant place to be at unless you use pleasant methods to get there. When you are dealing with a human society the means is fully as important as the end.”

— Clarence Darrow

144. “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.”

— Clarence Darrow

145. “I knew that it is out of the question to have honest, economical government while a few are inordinately rich and the great mass of men are poor. In fact, it is to be doubted if anything really worthwhile can be done until there is a fairer distribution of wealth.”

— Clarence Darrow

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

— Clarence Darrow

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

— Clarence Darrow

148. “There is a soul of truth in error; there is a soul of good in evil.”

— Clarence Darrow

149. “The difference between the child and the man lies chiefly in the unlimited confidence and buoyancy of youth.”

— Clarence Darrow

150. “An agnostic is a doubter. The word is generally applied to those who doubt the verity of accepted religious creeds of faiths.”

— Clarence Darrow