Earl Warren Quotes

“The fantastic advances in the field of electronic communication constitute a greater danger to the privacy of the individual.”

— Earl Warren

“Many people consider the things government does for them to be social progress but they regard the things government does for others as socialism.
[Address to National Press Club in Washington DC, as quoted in Freedom and Union (April 1952)]”

— Earl Warren

“Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile, I caught hell for.”

— Earl Warren

When an individual is taken into custody or otherwise deprived of his freedom by the authorities and is subjected to questioning ... he must be warned prior to any questioning that he has the right to remain silent, that anything he says can be used against him in a court of law, that he has the right to the presence of an attorney, and that if he cannot afford an attorney one will be appointed for him prior to any questioning if he so desires.

— Earl Warren

“In mid-life the man wants to see how irresistible he still is to younger women. How they turn their hearts to stone and more or less commit a murder of their marriage I just don't know, but they do.”

— Earl Warren

The police must obey the law while enforcing the law.

— Earl Warren

“It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.”

— Earl Warren

“To separate children from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.”

— Earl Warren

“In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education.”

— Earl Warren

“I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures.”

— Earl Warren

“If it is a mistake of the head and not the heart don't worry about it, that's the way we learn.”

— Earl Warren

Prior to any questioning, the person must be warned that he has a right to remain silent, that any statement he does make may be used as evidence against him and that he has a right to the presence of an attorney, either retained or appointed.

— Earl Warren

“The most tragic paradox of our time is to be found in the failure of nation-states to recognize the imperatives of internationalism.”

— Earl Warren

“Ben Franklin may have discovered electricity- but it is the man who invented the meter who made the money.”

— Earl Warren

“I feel that the greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more.”

— Earl Warren

“Liberty, not communism, is the most contagious force in the world.”

— Earl Warren

If Nixon is not forced to turn over tapes of his conversations with the ring of men who were conversing on their violations of the law, then liberty will soon be dead in this nation.

— Earl Warren

Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

— Earl Warren

“In civilized life, law floats in a sea of ethics.”

— Earl Warren

All provisions of federal, state or local law requiring or permitting discrimination in public education must yield.

— Earl Warren

Life and liberty can be as much endangered from illegal methods used to convict those thought to be criminals as from the actual criminals themselves.

— Earl Warren

“We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place.”

— Earl Warren

“Before this distinguished assembly and the world, the bells today proclaim the joyous tidings of the completion of this quietly soaring tower.”

— Earl Warren

“You sit up there, and you see the whole gamut of human nature. Even if the case being argued involves only a little fellow and $50, it involves justice. That's what is important.”

— Earl Warren

“There is no requirement that police stop a person who enters a police station and states that he wishes to confess a crime or a person who calls the police to offer a confession because volunteered statements of any kind are not barred by the 5th Amendment.”

— Earl Warren

“I hate banks. They do nothing positive for anybody except take care of themselves. They're first in with their fees and first out when there's trouble.”

— Earl Warren

“We may not know the whole story in our lifetime.”

— Earl Warren

“Legislatures represent people, not acres or trees.”

— Earl Warren

“The old Court you and I served so long will not be worthy of its traditions if Nixon can twist, turn and fashion If Nixon gets away with that, then Nixon makes the law as he goes along - not the Congress nor the courts.”

— Earl Warren

I'm very pleased with each advancing year. It stems back to when I was forty. I was a bit upset about reaching that milestone, but an older friend consoled me. 'Don't complain about growing old - many, many people do not have that privilege.'

— Earl Warren

“Churchmen are quick to defend religious freedom; lawyers were never so universally aroused as by President Roosevelt's Court bill; newspapers are most alert to civil liberties when there is a hint of press censorship in the air. And educators become perturbed at every effort to curb academic freedom. But too seldom do all of these become militant when ostensibly the rights of only one group are threatened. They do not always react to the truism that when the rights of any individual or group are chipped away, the freedom of all erodes.”

— Earl Warren

“Racial discrimination in public education is unconstitutional ... All provisions of federal, state or local law requiring or permitting such discrimination must yield to this principle.”

— Earl Warren

“The success of any legal system is measured by its fidelity to the universal ideal of justice.”

— Earl Warren

“It is doubtful that congress would pass the Bill of Rights if it were introduced today.”

— Earl Warren

“We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal education opportunities? We believe that it does.”

— Earl Warren

“I believe no one can read the history of our country without realizing that the Good Book and the spirit of the Savior have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses.”

— Earl Warren

“Legislators represent people, not trees or acres. Legislators are elected by voters, not farms or cities or economic interests.”

— Earl Warren

“[Apollo 7 was] an expedition of the mind, not of the heart.”

— Earl Warren

Those who serve upon our juries have maintained a standard of fairness and excellence and demonstrated a vision toward the administration of justice that is a wellspring of inspiration.

— Earl Warren

“Mere unorthodoxy or dissent from the prevailing mores is not to be condemned. The absence of such voices would be a symptom of grave illness to our society.”

— Earl Warren

We are now at the point where we must decide whether we are to honour the concept of a plural society which gains strength through diversity, or whether we are to have bitter fragmentation that will result in perpetual tension and strife.

— Earl Warren

“Citizenship is the right to have rights.”

— Earl Warren

“[O]ur War of the Revolution was, in good measure, fought as a protest against standing armies.”

— Earl Warren

The only reason that there has been no sabotage or espionage on the part of Japanese-Americans is that they are waiting for the right moment to strike.

— Earl Warren

“Many agricultural counties are far more important in the life of the State than their population bears to the entire population of the State. It is for this reason that I have never been in favor of restricting their representation in our State Senate to a strictly population basis. It is the same reason that the founding fathers of our country gave balanced representation to the States of the Union, equal representation in one House and proportionate representation based upon population in the other.”

— Earl Warren

The man of character, sensitive to the meaning of what he is doing, will know how to discover the ethical paths in the maze of possible behavior.

— Earl Warren

“It would indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defence, we would sanction the subversion of one of those liberties which make the defence of our nation worthwhile.”

— Earl Warren

“Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.”

— Earl Warren

“The mere summoning of a witness and compelling him to testify against his will, about his beliefs, expressions or associations, is a measure of governmental interference. And when those forced revelations concern maters that are unorthodox, unpopular, or even hateful to the general public, the reactions in the life of the witness may be disastrous.”

— Earl Warren

“Today, as always, the people, no less than the courts, must remain vigilant to preserve the principals of our Bill of Rights, lest in our desire to be secure we lose our ability to be free.”

— Earl Warren