Death is not only an unusually severe punishment, unusual in its pain, in its finality and in its enormity, but is serves no penal purpose more effectively than a less severe punishment.
William J. Brennan

If the right to privacy means anything, it is the right of the individual, married or single, to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion.
William J. Brennan

Law cannot stand aside from the social changes around it.
William J. Brennan

Religious conflict can be the bloodiest and cruelest conflicts that turn people into fanatics.
William J. Brennan

The principle inherent in the clause that prohibits pointless infliction of excessive punishment when less severe punishment can adequately achieve the same purposes invalidates the punishment.
William J. Brennan

The quest for freedom, dignity, and the rights of man will never end.
William J. Brennan

We do not consecrate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so, we dilute the freedom this cherished emblem represents.
William J. Brennan