Top Alan Dershowitz Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

Alan Dershowitz Biography

Alan Dershowitz

Alan Morton Dershowitz (born September 1, 1938) is an American lawyer and academic. He is a scholar of United States constitutional law and criminal law, and a noted civil libertarian. He spent most of his career at Harvard Law School where in 1967, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor of law in its history. He held the Felix Frankfurter professorship there from 1993 until his retirement in December 2013. He is now a regular CNN and Fox News contributor and political analyst.

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Alan Dershowitz Quotes

I have always considered "Pascal's Wager" a questionable bet to place. Any God worth "believing in" would surely prefer an honest agnostic to a calculating hypocrite.

Atheist, Believe, Believing, Hypocrite, Wager, Worth

Question authority; but, raise your hand first.

Authority, Firsts, Hand, Hands, Learning, Raise

It is the wall of separation between church and state. . . that is largely responsible for religion thriving in this country, as compared to those European countries in which church and state have been united, resulting in opposition to the church by those who disapprove of the government.

Compared, Country, Government, Opposition, Religion, Wall

No country in the history of the world has ever contributed more to humankind and accomplished more for its people in so brief a period of time as Israel has done since its relatively recent rebirth in 1948.

1948, Country, Done, Israel, People

I never place limits on the potential success of my students. If they're going into acting, they're going to win the Oscar. . . If they're going into law, they're going to be chief justice.

Justice, Law, Place, Potential, Success, Winning

Freedom of speech means freedom for those who you despise, and freedom to express the most despicable views. It also means that the government cannot pick and choose which expressions to authorize and which to prevent.

Mean, Government, Views, Despise, Expressions

Our First Amendment expresses a far different calculus for regulating speech than for regulating nonexpressive conduct and that is as it should be. The right to swing your fist should end at the tip of my nose, but your right to express your ideas should not necessarily end at the lobes of my ears.

Amendment, Ideas, Liberty, Nose, Swing, Swings

The very concept of an Iranian university is an oxymoron. There are no free and open places of learning in that repressive theocracy. Dissenters are not given tenure; they are murdered, after first being tortured. Blasphemy, which is broadly defined, is punished. Gays are not only excluded from Iranian universities, but are imprisoned and killed.

Concept, Firsts, Gay, Places, Punished, Theocracy

If you're a prosecutor, and you believe the defendant is guilty, you only talk about ultimate truth, but not intermediate truth. If you're the defense attorney, you care deeply about intermediate truth, but you tend to neglect ultimate truth.

Believe, Care, Defense, Guilty, Prosecutor, Talk

I've had such a satisfying life professionally and personally. I hope my tombstone says, 'Never boring. '

Boring, Hope, Life, Satisfying, Tombstone

I don't think the law exists to arrive at the truth. If it did, we wouldn't have exclusionary rules, we wouldn't have presumptions of innocence, we wouldn't have proof beyond reasonable doubt. There's an enormous difference between the role of truth in law and the role of truth in science. In law, truth is one among many goals.

Differences, Exclusionary, Law, Proof, Thinking, Truth

It's a new phenomenon in America that states can now sue the national government and become a kind of check and balance on the excesses of the federal government.

America, Balance, Federal, Government, National, Sue

Law is an imperfect profession in which success can rarely be achieved without some sacrifice of principle. Thus all practicing lawyers -- and most others in the profession -- will necessarily be imperfect, especially in the eyes of young idealists. There is no perfect justice, just as there is no absolute in ethics. But there is perfect injustice, and we know it when we see it.

Absolute, Eye, Inspirational, Know, Motivational, Profession

Individuals have the right to pick and choose which expressions to condemn, which to praise and which to say nothing about. Governments, however, must remain neutral as to the content of expression. And governments must protect the rights of all to express even the most despicable of views.

Government, Remain, Right, Rights, Say, Views

The law is agnostic about truth. It's very skeptical of ultimate truth. That's why freedom of speech permits lies to be told.

Freedom, Freedom Of Speech, Law, Lying, Told, Truth

Censorship laws are blunt instruments, not sharp scalpels. Once enacted, they are easily misapplied to merely unpopular or only marginally dangerous speech.

Censorship, Easily, Freedom Of Speech, Law, Laws, Scalpels

In my neighborhood, everyone had an opinion on the local cantor. You didn't go to a synagogue to listen to the rabbi's sermon. You went to listen to the cantor. It was like a concert.

Cantor, Concerts, Listen, Local, Opinion, Synagogue

I've thought of publishing a book of my hate mail, but I don't own the rights to the letters.

Book, Hate, Letters, Rights, Thought

I think we have to give religion its due. I think we have to respect those for whom religion is important, but equally respect those who can achieve good morality without religion.

Achieve, Giving, Important, Respect, Think, Thinking

You're absolutely right: Bob Grant is a racist, Bob Grant is a bigot, he's a despicable talk show host and I agree with that.

Bob, Despicable, Host, Racist, Right

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