Bloodshed, gentlemen, no doubt is lamentable. I have seen some of it--more perhaps than many of those who talk about it with such levity. But there are worse things than bloodshed, even on an extreme scale. . . . The trampling down of law and order which, under the conditions of a civilised state, assure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness--all this would be worse than bloodshed.

The world no longer has a choice between force and law; if civilization is to survive, it must choose the rule of law.

The clearest way to show what the rule of law means to us in everyday life is to recall what has happened when there is no rule of law.

We have never stopped sin by passing laws; and in the same way, we are not going to take a great moral ideal and achieve it merely by law.

Freedom under law is like the air we breathe. It is only as we govern ourselves that we are well-governed.

If the use of local police powers had been sufficient, our traditional method of leaving the problems in those hands would have been pursued. But when large gatherings of obstructionists made it impossible for the decrees of the Court to be carried out, both the law and the national interest demanded that the President take action.