35 Clarence Darrow Quotes From The Famous American Lawyer

Clarence Darrow was an American lawyer born in the year 1857.

He is best known for his work as a defense lawyer in the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and also in the famous Scopes 'Monkey' trial. We have collected the best Clarence Darrow quotes from the American lawyer in this article.

If you'd like to read more similar quotes, then take a look at these Bob Goff quotes and lawyer quotes.

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Here are the best Clarence Darrow quotes from the American lawyer. These Clarence Darrow quotes are memorable, just like the well-known lawyer himself.

1. "A criminal is a person with predatory instincts; but, without sufficient capital to form a corporation."

- Clarence Darrow.

2. "I am pleading for the future; I am pleading for a time when hatred and cruelty will not control the hearts of men. When we can learn by, reason and judgment and understanding and faith that all life is worth saving, and that mercy is the highest attribute of man."

- Clarence Darrow.

3. "Every instinct that is found in any man is in all men. The strength of the emotion may not be so overpowering, the barriers against possession not so insurmountable, the urge to accomplish the desire less keen."

- Clarence Darrow.

4. "It’s not bad people I fear so much as good people. When a person is sure that he is good, he is nearly hopeless; he gets cruel- he believes in punishment."

- Clarence Darrow.

5. "The world is made up for the most part of morons and natural tyrants, sure of themselves, strong in their own opinions, never doubting anything."

- Clarence Darrow.

6. "The fear of God is not the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the death of wisdom. Skepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom.."

- Clarence Darrow.

7. "Ancestors do not mean so much. The rebel who succeeds generally makes it easier for the posterity that follows him; so these descendants are usually contented and smug and soft. Rebels are made from life, not ancestors."

- Clarence Darrow.

8. "In life one cannot eat his cake and have it, too; he must make his choice and then do the best he can to be content to go the way his judgment leads."

- Clarence Darrow.

9. "If a man really has charge of his destiny at all, he should have something to say about getting born; and I only came through by a hair's-breadth."

- Clarence Darrow.

10. "I have suffered from being misunderstood, but I would have suffered a hell of a lot more if I had been understood."

- Clarence Darrow.

11. "The purpose of life is living. Men and women should get the most they can out of their lives."

- Clarence Darrow.

12. "I believe that religion is the belief in future life and in God. I don't believe in either. I don't believe in God as I don’t believe in Mother Goose."

- Clarence Darrow.

13. "True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else."

- Clarence Darrow.

14. "All men have an emotion to kill; when they strongly dislike some one they involuntarily wish he was dead. I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction."

- Clarence Darrow.

Here are the best Clarence Darrow quotes about law and justice from the great American lawyer. These Clarence Darrow quotes will give you a unique insight into the world of law.

15. "No other offense has ever been visited with such severe penalties as seeking to help the oppressed."

- Clarence Darrow.

16. "Justice has nothing to do with what goes on in a courtroom; Justice is what comes out of a courtroom."

- Clarence Darrow.

17. "I have lived my life, and I have fought my battles, not against the weak and the poor - anybody can do that - but against power, against injustice, against oppression, and I have asked no odds from them, and I never shall."

- Clarence Darrow.

18. "To be an effective criminal defense counsel, an attorney must be prepared to be demanding, outrageous, irreverent, blasphemous, a rogue, a renegade, and a hated, isolated, and lonely person - few love a spokesman for the despised and the damned."

- Clarence Darrow.

19. "The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business."

- Clarence Darrow.

20. "Chase after the truth like all hell and you'll free yourself, even though you never touch its coat tails."

- Clarence Darrow.

21. "There are a lot of myths which make the human race cruel and barbarous and unkind. Good and Evil, Sin and Crime, Free Will and the like delusions made to excuse God for damning men and to excuse men for crucifying each other."

- Clarence Darrow.

22. "It does not make much difference what kind of a law we make as long as the judges tell us what it means."

- Clarence Darrow.

23. "To be a good lawyer, one must have a mind and a disposition to venerate the past; a respect for precedents; a belief in the wisdom and the sanctity of the dead."

- Clarence Darrow.

24. "Most lawyers only tell you about the cases they win. I can tell you about some I lose. A lawyer who wins all his cases does not have many."

- Clarence Darrow.

25. "Inside every lawyer is the wreck of a poet."

- Clarence Darrow.

26. "Laws should be like clothes. They should be made to fit the people they serve."

- Clarence Darrow.

27. "The trouble with law is lawyers."

- Clarence Darrow.

28. "As long as the world shall last there will be wrongs, and if no man objected and no man rebelled, those wrongs would last forever."

- Clarence Darrow.

29. "You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom."

- Clarence Darrow.

Here are the best Clarence Darrow quotes from the famous Scopes Trial. Have a read of these interesting Clarence Darrow quotes from the famous lawyer.

30. "Ignorance and fanaticism are ever busy and need feeding. Always it is feeding and gloating for more."

- Clarence Darrow.

31. "Here we have done our best to turn back the tide that has sought to force itself upon this modern world, of testing every fact in science by a religious dictum."

- Clarence Darrow.

32. "I think this case will be remembered because it is the first case of this sort since we stopped trying people in America for witchcraft."

- Clarence Darrow.

33. "If today you can take a thing like evolution and make it a crime to teach it in the public school, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools."

- Clarence Darrow.

34. "I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are, sure that is all that agnosticism means."

- Clarence Darrow.

35. "I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic."

- Clarence Darrow.

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