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Age
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At twenty a man is full of fight and hope. He wants to reform the world. When he is seventy he still wants to reform the world, but he know he can't.
-Clarence Darrow
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Animals
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The fact that the lower animals are excited by the same emotions as ourselves is so well established, that it will not be necessary to weary the reader by many details. Terror acts in the same manner on them as on us, causing the muscles to tremble, the heart to palpitate, the sphincters to be relaxed, and the hair to stand on end. Suspicion, the offspring of fear, is eminently characteristic of most wild animals. It is, I think, impossible to read the account given by Sir E. Tennent, of the behaviour of the female elephants, used as decoys, without admitting that they intentionally practise deceit, and well know what they are about. Courage and timidity are extremely variable qualities in the individuals of the same species, as is plainly seen in our dogs. Some dogs and horses are ill-tempered, and easily turn sulky; others are good-tempered; and these qualities are certainly inherited. Every one knows how liable animals are to furious rage, and how plainly they shew it. Many, and probably true, anecdotes have been published on the long-delayed and artful revenge of various animals. The accurate Rengger, and Brehm state that the American and African monkeys which they kept tame, certainly revenged themselves. Sir Andrew Smith, a zoologist whose scrupulous accuracy was known to many persons, told me the following story of which he was himself an eye-witness; at the Cape of Good Hope an officer had often plagued a certain baboon, and the animal, seeing him approaching one Sunday for parade, poured water into a hole and hastily made some thick mud, which he skilfully dashed over the officer as he passed by, to the amusement of many bystanders. For long afterwards the baboon rejoiced and triumphed whenever he saw his victim.
-Clarence Darrow, The Descent of Man, ch. 3
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Atheism
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I don't believe in God because I don't believe in Mother Goose
-Clarence Darrow
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Bible, The
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-Clarence Darrow, commenting on The Holy Bible
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-Clarence Darrow, commenting on The Holy Bible
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Bravery
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Common experience shows how much rarer is moral courage than physical bravery. A thousand men will march to the mouth of the cannon where one man will dare espouse an unpopular cause.
-Clarence Darrow
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Death
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I never wanted to see anybody die, but there are a few obituary notices I have read with pleasure.
-Clarence Darrow
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Doubt
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Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt.
-Clarence Darrow
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Earth
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The best that we can do is to be kindly and helpful toward our friends and fellow passengers who are clinging to the same speck of dirt while we are drifting side by side to our common doom.
-Clarence Darrow
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Freedom
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You can protect your liberties in this world only by protecting the other man's freedom. You can be free only if I am free.
-Clarence Darrow
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You can only be free if I am free.
-Clarence Darrow
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Greatness & Great Things
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He's the greatest man who ever came out of Plymouth, Vermont. On Calvin Coolidge
-Clarence Darrow
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History
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History repeats itself. That's one of the things wrong with history.
-Clarence Darrow
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Ignorance & Stupidity
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I am an agnostic; I do not pretend to know what many ignorant men are sure of.
-Clarence Darrow
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I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure -- that is all that agnosticism means.
-Clarence Darrow
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Justice
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There is no such thing as justice--in or out of court.
-Clarence Darrow
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Language
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Even if you do learn to speak correct English, whom are you going to speak it to?
-Clarence Darrow
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Law
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The trouble with law is lawyers.
-Clarence Darrow
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Morals
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Physical deformity, calls forth our charity. But the infinite misfortune of moral deformity calls forth nothing but hatred and vengeance.
-Clarence Darrow
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Murder
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I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.
note: possibly associated with Darrow by being attributed to him in Irving Stone's Clarence Darrow for the Defense;, this information is un-substantiated
-Clarence Darrow, attributed to various sources: Twain, Churchill, anon, etc.
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Parenting
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The first half of our life is ruined by our parents and the second half by our children.
-Clarence Darrow
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Presidency
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When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I'm beginning to believe it.
-Clarence Darrow
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Truth
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Chase after the truth like all hell and you'll free yourself, even though you never touch its coattails.
-Clarence Darrow
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The pursuit of truth will set you free; even if you never catch up with it.
-Clarence Darrow
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Unions
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With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in man, than any other association of men.
-Clarence Darrow
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Books by and about Clarence Darrow