Source: "The Task of Maintaining Our Liberties: The Role of the Judiciary" (1953), P. 962
Context: For over a century it has been the settled doctrine of the Supreme Court that the principle of stare decisis has only limited application in constitutional cases. It might be thought that if any law is to be stabilized by a court decision it logically should be the most fundamental of all law -- that of the Constitution. But the years brought about a doctrine that such decisions must be tentative and subject to judicial cancellation if experience fails to verify them. The result is that constitutional precedents are accepted only at their current valuation and have a mortality rate almost as high as their authors.
1920s, Second State of the Union Address (1924)
"Body Pleasure and the Origins of Violence" (1975)
Context: When high self-needs are combined with the deprivation of physical affection, the result is self-interest and high rates of narcissism. Likewise, exhibitionistic dancing and pornography may be interpreted as a substitute for normal sexual expression.
Source: Cognitive Psychology, 1967, p. 42 ; As cited in: A.H.C. Van der Heijden, "Visual attention," in: Handbook of Perception and Action, Vol. 3. 1996
“Awareness precedes choice and choice precedes results.”
Source: The Greatness Guide: Powerful Secrets for Getting to World Class
1960s, Family Planning - A Special and Urgent Concern (1966)
Context: During the past half century Negroes have migrated on a massive scale, transplanting millions from rural communities to crammed urban ghettoes. In their migration, as with all migrants, they carried with them the folkways of the countryside into an inhospitable city slum. The size of family that may have been appropriate and tolerable on a manually cultivated farm was carried over to the jammed streets of the ghetto. In all respects Negroes were atomized, neglected and discriminated against. Yet, the worst omission was the absence of institutions to acclimate them to their new environment. Margaret Sanger, who offered an important institutional remedy, was unfortunately ignored by social and political leaders in this period. In consequence, Negro folkways in family size persisted. The problem was compounded when unrestrained exploitation and discrimination accented the bewilderment of the newcomer, and high rates of illegitimacy and fragile family relationships resulted.
“Countries with high voting rates also have high levels of political knowledge.”
Source: Losing Confidence - Power, politics, And The Crisis In Canadian Democracy (2009), Chapter 6, What If They held an Election and No One Came?, p. 159
Source: My Years with General Motors, 1963, p. 173 (2015 edition)
“We current justices read the Constitution in the only way that we can: as 20th-century Americans”
Speech to the Text and Teaching Symposium at Georgetown University (October 12, 1985).
Context: The framers discerned fundamental principles.... But our acceptance of the fundamental principles has not and should not bind us to those precise, at times anachronistic, contours. We current justices read the Constitution in the only way that we can: as 20th-century Americans... The ultimate question must be, what do the words of the text mean in our time? For the genius of the Constitution rests not in any static meaning it might have had in a world that is dead and gone, but in the adaptability of its great principles to cope with current problems and current needs. What the constitutional fundamentals meant to the wisdom of other times cannot be their measure to the vision of our time. Similarly, what those fundamentals mean for us, our descendants will learn, cannot be their measure to the vision of their time.
