For centuries, everyone from Presidents to paupers have been talking about equal justice, what it means to go without it, and the difficult and as yet unsuccessful struggle to achieve this noble goal. Occasionally, words are written or uttered which are worthy of repetition -- because of the content, or the elegance of the language, or sometimes because of the stature of the source. Some of these quotes are notable because the words can move us to action. Others teach us or warn us or even amuse us. The National Equal Justice Library has begun collecting some of the more impressive quotations we have managed to cull from speeches, judicial opinions, books and articles.  

We anticipate those visiting this section of the "Equal Justice Update" website may gain inspiration or insight from reading some of these quotations. In addition, you may be able to use one or more to spice up a report, an article, or a speech. We hope this compendium of quotes is helpful in that sense, too.

We recognize this compendium is incomplete at this stage and probably never will include all the notable quotations on this subject that have appeared in publications or speeches over the centuries. So we encourage visitors to this website to send us their favorite quotes that in anyway relate to legal services, indigent defense, or the entire subject of equal access to justice. If the quote has any relevance, we will add it to this website.  

"Lawyers must be activists to leave a contribution to society. The law is more than a control; it is an instrument for social change. The role of the OEO Legal Services Program is to provide the means within the democratic process for the law and lawyers to release the bonds which imprison people in poverty, to marshal the forces of law to combat the causes and effects of poverty."

- E. Clinton Bamberger, first Director of the OEO Legal Services Program, Speech to National Legal Aid and Defender Association, November 18, 1965

"If you will accept bold ideas, new theories, courageous innovation, and disputed principles with an open and inquisitive mind and a renewed commitment to make the law an instrument of advantage for disadvantaged people, we will be a significant generation."

- E. Clinton Bamberger, first Director of the OEO Legal Services Program, Speech to National Legal Aid and Defender Association, Scottsdale, Arizona, November 18, 1965

"Our responsibility is to marshal the forces of law and the strength of lawyers to combat the causes and effects of poverty. Lawyers must uncover the legal causes of poverty, remodel the system which generates the cycle of poverty and design new social, legal, and political tools and vehicles to move poor people from deprivation, depression, and despair to opportunity, hope, and ambition."

- E. Clinton Bamberger, first Director of the OEO Legal Services Program, Speech to National Conference of Bar Presidents, Chicago, Illinois, February 8, 1966

"Nine tenths of you are in jail because you did not have a good lawyer and, of course, you did not have a good lawyer because you did not have enough money to pay a good lawyer."

- Clarence Darrow, Address to prisoners in Cook County Jail, 1902

"The legal profession owes it to itself that wrongs do not go without a remedy because the injured has no advocate....Does the lawyer ask, who is my neighbor? I answer---the poor man deprived of his just dues."

- Charles Evans Hughes, Speech to the American Bar Association, August, 1920

"It has been correctly said that respect for the law is at its lowest with underprivileged persons. There is a natural tendency for such persons to think of the courts as symbols of trouble and of lawyers as representatives of creditors and other sources of 'harrassment.'"

- ABA President Lewis Powell, Speech to American Bar Association House of Delegates, August 14, 1964

"If we were to take command of the moral forces which are now stirring throughout the nation, we shall find public opinion ready to fight staunchly at our side. Let us assume that leadership by declaring here and now that henceforth within the field of law the mighty power of the organized American Bar stands pledged to champion the rights of the poor, the weak, and the defenseless."

- Reginald Heber Smith, Speech to the American Bar Association, August, 1920