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Quotes of the Day for 13 November 2004 - Louis Dembitz Brandeis

Louis David Brandeis was born at Louisville, Kentucky on this day in 1856, his parents were Jewish immigrants from Prague. Louis admired and emulated his scholarly uncle Lewis Dembitz by becoming a remarkable scholar and changing his middle name to Dembitz. When he graduated from Harvard Law School he had the highest academic record in Harvard's history. He was attracted to the cases of sweatshop laborers, consumers, investors, shareholders, and taxpayers and became known in Boston as the "People's Attorney". When World War I broke out the leaders of the European Zionist movement fled to America. Brandeis was impressed by their cause and became a key leader in that movement that resulted in the creation of Israel. Because he was a fairly radical liberal, a Jew, and a Zionist it took the Senate four acrimonious months to confirm his appointment to the US Supreme Court where he served from 1916 to 1939.

Organization can never be a substitute for initiative and for judgment.

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.

Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burned women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.

Our government ... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.

In the frank expression of conflicting opinions lies the greatest promise of wisdom in governmental action.

The most important political office is that of a private citizen.
     - All from Louis Dembitz Brandeis, 1856 - 1941

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