102 Quotes by Felix Frankfurter

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.

Wisdom too often never comes, so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late.

It is a wise man who said that there is no greater inequality than the equal treatment of unequals.

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

Answers are not obtained by putting the wrong question and thereby begging the real one.

Litigation is the pursuit of practical ends, not a game of chess.

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.

Judicial judgment must take deep account of the day before yesterday in order that yesterday may not paralyze today.

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.