Charles Evans Hughes Quotes
Quotes by Charles Evans Hughes

"The first lesson in civics is that efficient government begins at home."

"In a number of cases dissenting opinions have in time become the law."

"When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free."

"The United States is the greatest law factory the world has ever known."

"Dissents are appeals to the brooding spirit of the law, to the intelligence of another day."

"A man has to live with himself, and he should see to it that he always has good company."

"While democracy must have its organization and controls, its vital breath is individual liberty."

"The peril of this Nation is not in any foreign foe! We, the people, are its power, its peril, and its hope."

"The most ominous spirit of our times, as it seems to me, is the indication of the growth of an intolerent spirit."

"No greater mistake can be made than to think that our institutions are fixed or may not be changed for the worse. ..."

"I believe in work, hard work, and long hours of work. Men do not breakdown from overwork, but from worry and dissipation."

"At the constitutional level where we work, ninety percent of any decision is emotional. The rational part of us supplies the reasons for supporting our predilections."

"We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is, and the judiciary is the safeguard of our property and our liberty and our property under the Constitution."

"We still proclam the old ideals of liberty but we cannot voice them without anxiety in our hearts. The question is no longer one of establishing democratic institutions but of preserving them."

"Increasing prosperity tends to breed indifference and to corrupt moral soundness. Glaring inequalities in condition create discontent and strain the democratic relation. The vicious are the willing, and the ignorant are unconscious instruments of political artifice. Selfishness and demagoguery take advantage of liberty. The selfish hand constantly seeks to control government, and every increase of governmental power, even to meet just needs, furnishes opportunity for abuse and stimulates the effort to bend it to improper uses. .."

Compiled by Thomas George
editor@Liberty-vs-Tyranny.com/