All our work, our whole life is a matter of semantics, because words are the tools with which we work, the material out of which laws are made, out of which the Constitution was written. Everything depends on our understanding of them.
– Felix Frankfurter
As a member of this court I am not justified in writing my private notions of policy into the Constitution, no matter how deeply I may cherish them or how mischievous I may deem their disregard.
– Felix Frankfurter
Freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means to the end of achieving a free society.
– Felix Frankfurter
I came into the world a Jew, and although I did not live my life entirely as a Jew, I think it is fitting that I should leave as a Jew. I don't want to turn my back on a great and noble heritage.
– Felix Frankfurter
It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have been forged in controversies involving not very nice people.
– Felix Frankfurter
It is anomalous to hold that in order to convict a man the police cannot extract by force what is in his mind, but can extract what is in his stomach.
– Felix Frankfurter
Judicial judgment must take deep account of the day before yesterday in order that yesterday may not paralyze today.
– Felix Frankfurter
Litigation is the pursuit of practical ends, not a game of chess.
– Felix Frankfurter
Old age and sickness bring out the essential characteristics of a man.
– Felix Frankfurter
The mode by which the inevitable is reached is effort.
– Felix Frankfurter
The real rulers in Washington are invisible, and exercise power from behind the scenes.
– Felix Frankfurter
Fragile as reason is and limited as law is as the institutionalised medium of reason, that's all we have between us and the tyranny of mere will and the cruelty of unbridled, undisciplined feelings.
– Felix Frankfurter
Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late.
– Felix Frankfurter
To some lawyers, all facts are created equal.
– Felix Frankfurter
The mark of a truly civilized man is confidence in the strength and security derived from the inquiring mind.