Felix Frankfurter

“If one man can be allowed to determine for himself what is law, every man can. That means first chaos, then tyranny.”

“Words are clumsy tools, and it is very easy, not only for the legislator, but for the judge, to fall into traps of his own making.”

“The history of liberty has largely been the history of observance of procedural safeguards.”

“In a democracy, the highest office is the office of citizen.”

“The real rulers in Washington are invisible, and exercise power from behind the scenes.”

“It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people.”

“Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late.”

“Freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means to the end of a free society.”

“The mark of a truly civilized man is confidence in the strength and security derived from the inquiring mind.”

“Judicial self-restraint is the commanding principle of constitutional adjudication.”

“Litigation is the pursuit of practical ends, not a game of chess.”

“The administration of criminal justice is the most conspicuous pillar of a civilized state.”

“Fragile as reason is and limited as law is as the institutionalized medium of reason, that's all we have standing between us and the tyranny of mere will and the cruelty of unbridled, undisciplined feeling.”