WIST Quotations

Frankfurter, Felix -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

A clean desk is a sign of an empty mind.

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American jurist, teacher; US Supreme Court Justice (1939–62)
(Attributed)

Frequently attributed but with no actual citation found.

Frankfurter, Felix -- Baumgartner v. United States, 322 U.S. 664 (1944) [majority opinion]

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

One of the prerogatives of American citizenship is the right to criticize public men and measures — and that means not only informed and responsible criticism, but the freedom to speak foolishly and without moderation.

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American jurist, teacher; US Supreme Court Justice (1939–62)
Baumgartner v. United States, 322 U.S. 664 (1944) [majority opinion]

Ruling that the government could not strip a naturalized citizen of their citizenship simply for expressing political views, such as admiration for Adolph Hitler.

Frankfurter, Felix -- Felix Frankfurter Reminiscences (1960) [ed. Harlan Phillips]

Dave — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 02:53:37 +0000

Morals are three-quarters manners.

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American jurist, teacher; US Supreme Court Justice (1939–62)
Felix Frankfurter Reminiscences (1960) [ed. Harlan Phillips]

Frankfurter, Felix -- McCollum v. Board of Education 333 U.S. 216–217 (1948) [concurring]

Dave — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 16:42:41 +0000

The nonsectarian or secular public school was the means of reconciling freedom in general with religious freedom. The sharp confinement of the public schools to secular education was a recognition of the need of a democratic society to educate its children, insofar as the State undertook to do so, in an atmosphere free from pressures in a realm in which pressures are most resisted and where conflicts are most easily and most bitterly engendered. Designed to serve as perhaps the most powerful agency for promoting cohesion among a heterogeneous democratic people, the public school must keep scrupulously free from entanglement in the strife of sects.

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American jurist, teacher; US Supreme Court Justice (1939–62)
McCollum v. Board of Education 333 U.S. 216–217 (1948) [concurring]

Frankfurter, Felix -- McCollum v. Board of Education 333 U.S. 217 (1948) [concurring]

Dave — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 16:45:50 +0000

The preservation of the community from divisive conflicts, of Government from irreconcilable pressures by religious groups, of religion from censorship and coercion, however subtly exercised, requires strict confinement of the State to instruction other than religious, leaving to the individual’s church and home indoctrination in the faith of his choice.

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American jurist, teacher; US Supreme Court Justice (1939–62)
McCollum v. Board of Education 333 U.S. 217 (1948) [concurring]

Frankfurter, Felix -- McCollum v. Board of Education 333 U.S. 231 (1948) [concurring]

Dave — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 20:09:31 +0000

Separation means separation, not something less. Jefferson’s metaphor in describing the relation between Church and State speaks of a “wall of separation,” not of a fine line easily overstepped. The public school is at once the symbol of our democracy and the most pervasive means for promoting our common destiny. In no activity of the State is it more vital to keep out divisive forces than in its schools, to avoid confusing, not to say fusing, what the Constitution sought to keep strictly apart.

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American jurist, teacher; US Supreme Court Justice (1939–62)
McCollum v. Board of Education 333 U.S. 231 (1948) [concurring]

Frankfurter, Felix -- McCollum v. Board of Education, 333 U.S. 232 (1948) [concurring]

Dave — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:47:30 +0000

If nowhere else, in the relation between Church and State, “good fences make good neighbors.”

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American jurist, teacher; US Supreme Court Justice (1939–62)
McCollum v. Board of Education, 333 U.S. 232 (1948) [concurring]

Ruling that public schools could not let religious groups use their property for religious education to children.

The quoted reference is to a poem by Robert Frost.

Frankfurter, Felix -- McNabb v. United States, 318 U.S. 332, 347 (1943) [majority opinion]

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

The history of liberty is the history of the observances of procedural safeguards.

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American jurist, teacher; US Supreme Court Justice (1939–62)
McNabb v. United States, 318 U.S. 332, 347 (1943) [majority opinion]

The ruling determined a defendant's confession was inadmissible as evidence in federal court if the government had disregarded the legal requirement to bring them promptly before a judge or magistrate.

Frankfurter, Felix -- Pennekamp v. Florida, 328 U.S. 331, 350–351 (1946) [concurring]

Dave — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 19:56:59 +0000

This Court sits to interpret, in appropriate judicial controversies, a Constitution which, in its Bill of Rights, formulates the conditions of a democracy. But democracy is the least static form of society. Its basis is reason, not authority. Formulas embodying vague and uncritical generalizations offer tempting opportunities to evade the need for continuous thought. But so long as men want freedom, they resist this temptation.

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American jurist, teacher; US Supreme Court Justice (1939–62)
Pennekamp v. Florida, 328 U.S. 331, 350–351 (1946) [concurring]

Frankfurter, Felix -- Pennekamp v. Florida, 328 U.S. 331, 354–356 (1946) [concurring]

Dave — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 17:11:02 +0000

Without a free press there can be no free society. That is axiomatic. However, freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means to the end of a free society. The scope and nature of the constitutional guarantee of the freedom of the press are to be viewed and applied in that light.

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American jurist, teacher; US Supreme Court Justice (1939–62)
Pennekamp v. Florida, 328 U.S. 331, 354–356 (1946) [concurring]

An extract of this quote ("Freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means to the end of [achieving] a free society") was apparently written in a New York Times article of 1953-11-28 (but not Frankfurter's essay of that date) and is often cited to that article.

Frankfurter, Felix -- United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 US 56, 69 (1950) [dissenting]

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people.

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American jurist, teacher; US Supreme Court Justice (1939–62)
United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 US 56, 69 (1950) [dissenting]

Frankfurter, Felix -- United States v. United Mine Workers, 330 U.S. 258, 312 (1947) [concurring]

Dave — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 15:58:45 +0000

In our country, law is not a body of technicalities in the keeping of specialists or in the service of any special interest. There can be no free society without law administered through an independent judiciary. If one man can be allowed to determine for himself what is law, every man can. That means first chaos, then tyranny. Legal process is an essential part of the democratic process.

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American jurist, teacher; US Supreme Court Justice (1939–62)
United States v. United Mine Workers, 330 U.S. 258, 312 (1947) [concurring]

Frankfurter, Felix -- Comment to reporters (9 Aug 1964)

Dave — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 14:47:50 +0000

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 (1882–1965) American jurist, teacher; US Supreme Court Justice (1939–62)
Comment to reporters (9 Aug 1964)