Sarhan Breyer Quotes

I want to make as much of a contribution as I can, to Harvard, to higher education and hopefully, to education around the world. ~ Jim Breyer

You can have many different selection systems, but the bottom line has to be a system that, once the judge takes office that judge will feel that he or she is to decide the case without reference to the popular thing or the popular will of the moment. ~ Stephen Breyer

Ultimately, the question of campaign contributions will be decided by the public. ~ Stephen Breyer

The best clue to what a person thinks is what he says. ~ Stephen Breyer

Senator Obama voted against Justice Breyer and Justice Roberts on the grounds that they didn't meet his ideological standards. That's not the way we should judge these nominees. Elections have consequences. ~ John McCain

And the problem is once you get into this campaign business and begin to have a lot of money, then the person on the bench begins to think - what's going to happen if I decide the case this way or that way? ~ Stephen Breyer

The advantages? Exercise, no parking problems, gas prices, it's fun. An automobile is expensive. You have to find a place to park and it's not fun. So why not ride a bicycle? I recommend it. ~ Stephen Breyer

Independence means you decide according to the law and the facts. ~ Stephen Breyer

And in that confirmation process, I sat for 17 hours in front of a senate judiciary committee. ~ Stephen Breyer

The Court has a special responsibility to ensure that the Constitution works in practice. While education, including the transmission of our civic values from one generation to the next, must play the major role in maintaining public confidence in the Court's decisions, the Court too must help maintain public acceptance of its own legitimacy. It can do this best by helping ensure that the Constitution remains "workable" in a broad sense of the term. Specifically, it can and should interpret the Constitution in a way that works for the people of today. ~ Stephen G. Breyer

It's important to every American that the law protect his or her basic liberty. ~ Stephen Breyer

We are selected, but I grew up in California and in San Francisco and there was a system of electing judges. ~ Stephen Breyer

You will read in the newspaper more often about federal courts, but the law that affects people, the trials that affect human beings are by and large in the state courts. ~ Stephen Breyer

Nobody wants a judge to be subject to the political whim of the moment. ~ Stephen Breyer

I mean those people who are interested in good government will certainly contribute in order to make certain there's some counter-balance to those whose interests in good government is less. ~ Stephen Breyer

No person is free who is not master of himself. Epictetus ~ Avery Breyer

I fundamentally believe in term limits, for Congress, presidents, and board members. ~ Jim Breyer

Independence doesn't mean you decide the way you want. ~ Stephen Breyer

The innovation industries are rapidly going global. In five years, more than 50% of venture capital returns will come from markets outside the United States, including China, India, Brazil, and Australia, and AlwaysOn events are on top of these trends. ~ Jim Breyer

The intelligence of the heart bypasses the intellect in the head which works on assumptions and requires a lot of thinking and confusion and makes a person tired and weak. But, the heart intelligence is not only direct and to the point, it also gives you energy, vitality and strength. ~ James Dillehay

This understanding, underlying constitutional interpretation since the New Deal, reflects the Constitution's demands for structural flexibility sufficient to adapt substantive laws and institutions to rapidly changing social, economic, and technological conditions. ~ Stephen Breyer

I thought that that was an effort to inject a popular element, a democratic element into the selection of a person who, once he is selected and confirmed, is beyond electoral control. ~ Stephen Breyer

To threaten the institution is to threaten fair administration of justice and protection of liberty. ~ Stephen Breyer

The complexity of modern federal criminal law, codified in several thousand sections of the United States Code and the virtually infinite variety of factual circumstances that might trigger an investigation into a possible violation of the law, make it difficult for anyone to know, in advance, just what particular set of statements might later appear (to a prosecutor) to be relevant to some such investigation. ~ Stephen G. Breyer

I voted for Justice Breyer and Justice Ginsburg. Not because I agreed with their ideology, but because I thought they were qualified and that elections have consequences when presidents are nominated. ~ John McCain

I feel there is so much more we can do in improving education, making it accessible and understanding how technology can be a part of the solution. ~ Jim Breyer

Well, just that there would be somebody in the office and the voters - it was more or less an understanding in the entire community, as long as that person was doing a good job on the merits, nobody was going to run against him. ~ Stephen Breyer

But once the person is selected, at that point that person is independent. ~ Stephen Breyer