“A confession is wholly and incontestably voluntary only if a guilty person gives himself up to the law and becomes his own accuser.”

Ashcraft v. Tennessee, 322 U.S. 143, 161 (1944)
Judicial opinions

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update March 31, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "A confession is wholly and incontestably voluntary only if a guilty person gives himself up to the law and becomes his …" by Robert H. Jackson?

Robert H. Jackson96

American judge 1892–1954

Related quotes

“Man’s main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his own personality.”

Erich Fromm (1900–1980) German social psychologist and psychoanalyst

Source: Man for Himself (1947), Ch. 4 "Problems of Humanistic Ethics"

“That in all capital or criminal prosecutions a man bath a right to demand the cause and nature of his accusation, to be confronted with the accusers and witnesses, to call for evidence in his favor, and to a speedy trial by an impartial jury of twelve men of his vicinage, without whose unanimous consent he cannot be found guilty; nor can he be compelled to give evidence against himself; that no man be deprived of his liberty, except by the law of the land or the judgment of his peers.”

George Mason (1725–1792) American delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention

Article 8
Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)

“All my life, I thought of love as some kind of voluntary enslavement. Well, that's a lie: freedom only exists when love is present. The person who gives him or herself wholly, the person who feels freest, is the person who loves most wholeheartedly.”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Source: Eleven Minutes

“No man can be judged a criminal until he be found guilty; nor can society take from him the public protection, until it have been proved that he has violated the conditions on which it was granted. What right, then, but that of power, can authorise the punishment of a citizen, so long as there remains any doubt of his guilt? The dilemma is frequent. Either he is guilty, or not guilty. If guilty, he should only suffer the punishment ordained by the laws, and torture becomes useless, as his confession is unnecessary. If he be not guilty, you torture the innocent; for, in the eye of the law, every man is innocent, whose crime has not been proved.”

Cesare Beccaria book On Crimes and Punishments

On Crimes and Punishments (1764)

“But ignorance of the law is no excuse. A person is guilty even if he breaks the law unknowingly. I shall be perhaps the first of the defendants to get up on that stand and admit that I am at least partly guilty.”

Walther Funk (1890–1960) German economist and politician

To Leon Goldensohn, March 31, 1946 from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

The Critic as Artist (1891), Part II

“Each person belongs to the environment, in his own person, as himself.”

William Saroyan The Time of Your Life

The Time of Your Life (1939)

“It will then be a state of enlightened anarchy in which each person will become his own ruler. He will conduct himself in such a way that his behaviour will not hamper the well-being of his neighbours.”

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India

The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi "Enlightened Anarchy - A Political Ideal" Volume 74 p. 380.
1930s
Context: Political power, in my opinion, cannot be our ultimate aim. It is one of the means used by men for their all-round advancement. The power to control national life through national representatives is called political power. Representatives will become unnecessary if the national life becomes so perfect as to be self-controlled. It will then be a state of enlightened anarchy in which each person will become his own ruler. He will conduct himself in such a way that his behaviour will not hamper the well-being of his neighbours. In an ideal State there will be no political institution and therefore no political power. That is why Thoreau has said in his classic statement that "that government is the best which governs the least". [From Hindi] Sarvodaya, January, 1939

“He had withdrawn solely for his own personal pleasure, only to be near to himself. No longer distracted by anything external, he basked in his own existence and found it splendid.”

Patrick Süskind (1949) German writer and screenwriter

Source: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

“Accuse the other side of that which you are guilty.”

Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister

Perhaps a reframing of "The cleverest trick used in propaganda against Germany during the war was to accuse Germany of what our enemies themselves were doing," which Goebbels said at a 1934 Nurenberg rally. stackexchange.com https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/37824/did-joseph-goebbels-say-accuse-the-other-side-of-that-which-you-are-guilty. <br class="br">Misattributed

“A confession is wholly and incontestably voluntary only if a guilty person gives himself up to the law and becomes his own accuser.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Robert H. Jackson96

Related quotes

Related topics