Top 60 Alan Dershowitz Quotes

In the real world in which we live, you always have to choose between evils. And in choosing between evils, you have to have moral criteria for how to make those choices.

The same independence that got me into trouble in high school got me praise in college.

I feel like my 50 years at Harvard were an interlude. I’m really a New Yorker.

For most people, the question why be good – as distinguished from merely law abiding – is a simple one. Because God commands it, because the Bible requires it, because good people go to Heaven and bad people go to Hell.

President Obama has earned my vote on the basis of his excellent judicial appointments, his consensus-building foreign policy and the improvements he has brought about in the disastrous economy he inherited.

Asymmetrical warfare is a euphemism for terrorism, just like collateral damage is a euphemism for killing innocent civilians.

The law is agnostic about truth. It’s very skeptical of ultimate truth. That’s why freedom of speech permits lies to be told.

I never place limits on the potential success of my students. If they’re going into acting, they’re going to win the Oscar… If they’re going into law, they’re going to be chief justice.

I’m never satisfied unless I get the last word.

Good character consists of recognizing the selfishness that inheres in each of us and trying to balance it against the altruism to which we should all aspire. It is a difficult balance to strike, but no definition of goodness can be complete without it.

Great research universities must insist on independence from government and on the exercise of academic freedom.

It’s every lawyer’s dream to help shape the law, not just react to it.

I believe that if Israel were to put an end to the settlements in the West Bank tomorrow, as it did in Gaza, there would still be reluctance on the part of the Palestinian Authority to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish secular democracy.

Well you know, all law is about injustice.

Scientists search for truth. Philosophers search for morality. A criminal trial searches for only one result: proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

I charge my wealthy clients a lot and put 10 per cent in a fund which I use to pay the expenses of my poorer clients. When the government gangs up on the poor schnook in the street, someone has to stand up for him.

Juries are not computers. They are composed of human beings who evaluate evidence differently.

I’ve always worked.

There will never be another Ed Koch. He was an original, but he represented a significant, if shrinking, segment of American Jewry who refused to compromise their liberal values, their support for Israel or their Jewish pride.

Freedom of speech means freedom for those who you despise, and freedom to express the most despicable views. It also means that the government cannot pick and choose which expressions to authorize and which to prevent.

I am deeply concerned that, without peace and a two-state solution, the Jewish and democratic nature of Israel is in danger. That’s why I have opposed Israel’s settlement policy since 1973, and that’s why I have favored a two-state solution since 1967.

Any human being has private thoughts.

It’s never acceptable to target civilians. It violates the Geneva Accords, it violates the international law of war and it violates all principles of morality.

The worst mistake you can make is underrating your enemy. Assuming that they’re evil – I think it’s a terrible thing to do.

In today’s distorted world of ‘human rights,’ truth takes a back seat to ideology, and false claims – especially those that ‘support’ radical ideologies – persist even after they have been exposed.

I love the Bible.

In my neighborhood, everyone had an opinion on the local cantor. You didn’t go to a synagogue to listen to the rabbi’s sermon. You went to listen to the cantor. It was like a concert.

I never had an existential moment when I asked myself what I was going to do. I always wanted to be a lawyer, and I knew exactly the kind of lawyer I wanted to be.

Being offended by freedom of speech should never be regarded as a justification for violence.

The Internet knows no national borders.

When I was growing up, my mother would always say, ‘It will go on your permanent record.’ There was no ‘permanent record.’ If there were a ‘permanent record,’ I’d never be able to be a lawyer. I was such a bum in elementary school and high school… There is a permanent record today, and it’s called the Internet.

I have been defending Israel’s right to exist, and to defend itself against terrorism, for many years-on college campuses, in television appearances and in debate.

I love to play. I love, opera, hiking and museums. The one thing I don’t do is sit. I have a tremendous amount of energy.

I’ve thought of publishing a book of my hate mail, but I don’t own the rights to the letters.

The sad reality is that there are no purely domestic issues in Israel. Issues that would be dealt with by municipalities in other countries – such as how to deal with a dangerous bridge or how to resolve conflicts between religious and secular bus riders – become major international issues when they occur in Israel.

We have to fulfill what the real meaning of the Second Amendment is: reasonable access to guns for self-protection and for hunting. And there’s no room in America for these semiautomatic, automatic and other kinds of weapons that are simply designed to cause mass havoc.

Individuals have the right to pick and choose which expressions to condemn, which to praise and which to say nothing about. Governments, however, must remain neutral as to the content of expression. And governments must protect the rights of all to express even the most despicable of views.

In the Pentagon Papers case, the government asserted in the Supreme Court that the publication of the material was a threat to national security. It turned out it was not a threat to U.S. security. But even if it had been, that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be published.

I think there would be less torture with a warrant requirement than without one.

The court of last resort is no longer the Supreme Court. It’s ‘Nightline.’

I can’t find anything in the Constitution that says you prefer the life of the mother, or the convenience of the mother if it’s an abortion by choice, over the potential life of the fetus. Look, I think women, if they’re required to not have abortions, could die and could – so I favor a woman’s right to choose.

Candor and accountability in a democracy is very important. Hypocrisy has no place.

A visit to Israel is always an experience in cognitive dissonance. The Israel you personally see and hear is so completely different from the Israel you read and hear about in the media.

Most liberal democracies don’t try to figure out what the truth is.

Every celebrity case I’ve been involved in – I’ve been involved in a great many – the one thing you can be sure of is they don’t get the same justice as everybody else. It could be worse, it could be better, it’s never the same.

Judges are the weakest link in our system of justice, and they are also the most protected.

Every lawsuit results from somebody doing something wrong. If everybody did right, we wouldn’t need laws.

No country in the history of the world has ever contributed more to humankind and accomplished more for its people in so brief a period of time as Israel has done since its relatively recent rebirth in 1948.

I’ve written important articles on prevention, on the concept of the preventive state, how the law is moving much more in an area of trying to prevent wrongs than trying to deal with them after they occur. That will be my academic/intellectual legacy.

I think most defense attorneys honestly believe the principle that says, ‘Better 10 guilty go free than even one possibly innocent person be convicted.’

There are many levels of truth.

I was critical of race-based affirmative action early on in my career and I’ve changed my mind. And I’ve publicly acknowledged that I was wrong.

The vast majority of gun owners don’t kill, but people who do kill, tend to kill with guns, and often with illegal guns.

Twenty five percent of Israeli citizens are not even Jewish. Anybody can become an Israeli citizen if you qualify. Religion is not a criterion for citizenship.

I think that lawyers are terrible at admitting that they’re wrong. And not just admitting it – also realizing it.

The defendant wants to hide the truth because he’s generally guilty. The defense attorney’s job is to make sure the jury does not arrive at that truth.

The struggle for morality never stays won. It’s always in process.

Hypocrisy is not a way of getting back to the moral high ground. Pretending you’re moral, saying you’re moral is not the same as acting morally.

We don’t have an Official Secrets Act in the United States, as other countries do. Under the First Amendment, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of association are more important than protecting secrets.