Quotes & anectdotes from the wise, the foolish, the courageous & the drunk

Louis D. Brandeis

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: United States
  • Born: Nov 13, 1856
  • Died: Oct 5, 1941

Louis Dembitz Brandeis was an American lawyer and associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939.

He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Jewish immigrant parents from Bohemia, who raised him in a secular home. He attended Harvard Law School, graduating at the age of twenty with the highest grade average in the law school's history.

Brandeis settled in Boston, where he founded a law firm and became a recognized lawyer through his work on progressive social causes. Starting in 1890, he helped develop the "right to privacy" concept by writing a Harvard Law Review article of that title, and was thereby credited by legal scholar Roscoe Pound as having accomplished "nothing less than adding a chapter to our law". He later published a book titled Other People's Money And How the Bankers Use It, suggesting ways of curbing the power of large banks and money trusts, which partly explains why he later fought against powerful corporations, monopolies, public corruption, and mass consumerism, all of which he felt were detrimental to American values and culture.

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

There are no shortcuts in evolution. science

We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both. greatness

Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. experience & government

If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable. politics & respect

Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done. history

The most important political office is that of the private citizen. politics

St. Patrick's Day March 17, 2025

There is no language like the Irish for soothing and quieting. 3 quotes from John Millington Synge

3 quotes from John Millington Synge

Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy. 28 other views from William Butler Yeats

28 other views from William Butler Yeats

Geographically, Ireland is a medium-sized rural island that is slowly but steadily being consumed by sheep. 27 sayings from Dave Barry

27 sayings from Dave Barry

We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English. 74 wisdom & wit from Winston Churchill

74 wisdom & wit from Winston Churchill