Jerome Lawrence > Quotes

“All motion is relative. Maybe it's you who've moved away by standing still.”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“Can't you understand? That if you take a law like evolution and you make it a crime to teach it in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools? And tomorrow you may make it a crime to read about it. And soon you may ban books and newspapers. And then you may turn Catholic against Protestant, and Protestant against Protestant, and try to foist your own religion upon the mind of man. If you can do one, you can do the other. Because fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy, and needs feeding. And soon, your Honor, with banners flying and with drums beating we'll be marching backward, BACKWARD, through the glorious ages of that Sixteenth Century when bigots burned the man who dared bring enlightenment and intelligence to the human mind

-Henry Drummond, a character in Inherit The Wind”
― Jerome Lawrence

“Progress has never been a bargain. You have to pay for it.
Sometimes I think there's a man who sits behind a counter and says, "All right, you can have a telephone but you lose privacy and the charm of distance.
Madam, you may vote but at a price. You lose the right to retreat behind the powder puff or your petticoat.
Mister, you may conquer the air but the birds will lose their wonder and the clouds will smell of gasoline.

Henry Drummond, a character in Inherit the Wind”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“An idea is a greater monument than a cathedral. And the advance of man's knowledge is a greater miracle than all the sticks turned to snakes or the parting of the waters.”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“I don't swear just for the hell of it. Language is a poor enough means of communication. I think we should use all the words we've got. Besides, there are damn few words that anybody understands.

Henry Drummond, a character in Inherit the Wind”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“When you lose the power to laugh, you lose your power to think straight.”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“The man who has everything figured out is probably a fool. College examinations notwithstanding, it takes a very smart fella to say "I don't know the answer!”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“Fanaticism and Ignorance is forever busy and needs feeding.”
― Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee

“Don't have any opinions. They're bad for business.”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“A giant once lived in that body. But Matt Brady got lost. Because he was looking for God too high up and too far away.”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“…I must say that "Right" has no meaning to me whatsoever! Truth has meaning - as a direction. But one of the peculiar imbecilities of our time is the grid of morality we have placed on human behavior: so that every act of man must be measured against an arbitrary latitude of right and longitude of wrong - in exact minutes, seconds, and degrees!...

-Henry Drummond, a character in Inherit The Wind”
― Jerome Lawrence

“When you loose your power to laugh, you loose your power to think straight.”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“The man who has everything figured out is probably a fool.”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“Is it possible to be overzealous, to destroy that which you hope to save-so that nothing is left but emptiness.”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“Buy a Bible!Your guide to eternal life!”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“Why? Because I refuse to erase a man's lifetime? I tell you Brady had the same right as Cates: the right to be wrong!”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“Cynical? Thats my fascination. I do hateful things, for which people love me, And lovable things for which they hate me. I am a friend of enemies, the enemy of friends; I am admired for my detestability. I am both Poles and the Equator, with no Temperate Zones between.”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“You don't suppose this kind of thing is ever finished, do you? Tomorrow it'll be something else-and another fella will have to stand up. And you've helped give him the guts to do it!”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“He weighs the volume in his hand; this one has been the center of the whirlwind. Then DRUMMOND notices the Bible on the JUDGE's bench. He picks up the Bible in his other hand; he looks from one volume to the other, balancing them thoughtfully, as if his hands were scales. He half-smiles, half-shrugs. Then DRUMMOND slaps the two books together and jams them in his brief case, side by side. Slowly, he climbs to the street level and crosses the empty square.”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“He that troubleth his own house...shall inherit the wind.”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“لم أكن أفكر جيدا .. كنت أخاف مما يمكن أن أفكر به. ولذلك كان عدم التفكير أكثر أمانا. ولكن الآن بدأت أعرف أن الفكر مثل جنين داخل الجسد .. لابد أن يولد .. وإذا مات داخلك، فإن جزءا منك يموت أيضا”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“It frightens me to imagine the state of learning in this world if everyone had your driving curiosity.”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“Time and space are awash here.”
― Jerome Lawrence, The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail

“إن الجهل نشيط دائما ويحتاج إلي وقود، وليس ثمة وقود أفضل من التعصب للرأي”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“الله خلق الإنسان على صورته. ولأن الإنسان كائن مهذب، فإنه فعل المعروف نفسه مع الله”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“We must look hopeful.”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“Hot dog? Bible? Now that poses a problem! Which is hungrier-my stomach or my soul?”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“It snows. So I don't even have to go to the pond for fresh water — just reach out the door for a handful of snow. Melt it, and it's sweet as the sky.”
― Jerome Lawrence, The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail

“If my own brother challenged the faith of millions, I would oppose him.”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century

“If the enemy sends it's Goliath into battle, it magnifies our cause.”
― Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century