I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure - that is all that agnosticism means. Clarence Darrow More Quotes by Clarence Darrow More Quotes From Clarence Darrow It is bigotry for public schools to teach only one theory of origins. Clarence Darrow teach theory school Most lawyers only tell you about the cases they win. I can tell you about some I lose. A lawyer who wins all his cases does not have many. Clarence Darrow lawyer winning doe The truth is, no man is white and no man is black. We are all freckled. Clarence Darrow black white men I don't like spinach, and I'm glad I don't, because if I liked it I'd eat it, and I just hate it. Clarence Darrow hate humorous food The best way to understand somebody else is to put yourself in his place. Clarence Darrow best-way way Lawyers are natural politicians. Clarence Darrow lawyer politician natural Human action is governed largely by instinct and emotion. Clarence Darrow instinct emotion action The fact that there is a general belief in a future life is no evidence of its truth Clarence Darrow future belief facts Many writers claim that nearly all crime is caused by economic conditions, or in other words that poverty is practically the whole cause of crime. Endless statistics have been gathered on this subject which seem to show conclusively that property crimes are largely the result of the unequal distribution of wealth. But crime of any class cannot be safely ascribed to a single cause. Life is too complex, heredity is too variant and imperfect, too many separate things contribute to human behavior, to make it possible to trace all actions to a single cause. Clarence Darrow poverty causes class If today you can take a thing like evolution and make it a crime to teach it in the public school, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools, and the next year you can make it a crime to teach it to the hustings or in the church. At the next session you may ban books and newspapers. Soon you may set Catholic against Protestant and Protestant against Protestant, and try to foist your own religion upon the minds of men. Clarence Darrow men book school An agnostic is a doubter. The word is generally applied to those who doubt the verity of accepted religious creeds of faiths. Clarence Darrow atheism religious doubt Every thought of pity is like the balm of Gilead to our souls. Clarence Darrow pity soul The difference between the child and the man lies chiefly in the unlimited confidence and buoyancy of youth. Clarence Darrow men lying children Every government on earth is the personification of violence and force, and yet the doctine of non-resistance is as old as human thought - even more than this, the instinct is as old as life upon the earth. Clarence Darrow resistance government earth Any one who thinks is an agnostic about something, otherwise he must believe that he is possessed of all knowledge. And the proper place for such a person is in the madhouse or the home for the feeble-minded. Clarence Darrow home believe thinking The lowest standards of ethics of which a right-thinking man can possibly conceive is taught to the common soldier whose trade is to shoot his fellow men. In youth he may have learned the command, 'Thou shalt not kill,' but the ruler takes the boy just as he enters manhood and teaches him that his highest duty is to shoot a bullet through his neighbor's heart - and this, unmoved by passion or feeling or hatred, and without the least regard to right or wrong, but simply because his ruler gives the word. Clarence Darrow passion heart war It is not for the world to judge, but to crown them all alike. Each and all lived out their own being, did their work in their own way, and carried a reluctant, stupid humanity to greater Clarence Darrow judging stupid humanity Life is a never-ending school, and the really important lessons all tend to teach man his proper relation to the environment where he must live. Clarence Darrow humanity life school Some false representations contravene the law; some do not. The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business, and, besides, could not be done. The line between honesty and dishonesty is a narrow, shifting one and usually lets those get by that are the most subtle and already have more than they can use. Clarence Darrow honesty law lying One believes in the truthfulness of a man because of his long experience with the man, and because the man has always told a consistent story. But no man has told so consistent a story as nature. Clarence Darrow men long believe
