Scopes isn’t on trial; civilization is on trial.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that the issues at hand reflect broader concerns about society and its values rather than just the individual or event in question.
Clarence Darrow's statement emphasizes that the trial, often perceived as a legal battle, is actually a reflection of the moral and ethical standards of civilization itself. It implies that the outcome of the trial transcends the immediate case, challenging society's views on education, freedom of thought, and the progress of humanity. Darrow is pointing to the larger implications of the events, highlighting that the true stakes involve the future of civil rights and knowledge in an increasingly complex world.
In practice
During a lecture on the importance of freedom of expression, I might quote Darrow to illustrate the broader implications of individual cases in society.
With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in men, than any other association of men.
Do I need to argue to Your Honor that cruelty only breeds cruelty? That hatred only causes hatred; that if there is any way to soften this human heart which is hard enough at its best, if there is any way to kill evil and hatred and all that goes with it, it is not through evil and hatred and cruelty; it is through charity, and love, and understanding?
Chase after the truth like all hell.
No other offense has ever been visited with such severe penalties as seeking to help the oppressed.
Liberty is the most jealous and exacting mistress that can beguile the brain and soul of man. She will have nothing from him who will not give her all. She knows that his pretended love serves but to betray. But when once the fierce heat of her quenchless, lustrous eyes have burned into the victim's heart, he will know no other smile but hers.
The trouble with law is lawyers.
I know ours is a world made by men for men, their dictatorship is so ancient it even extends to language.
Our Age of Anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to do today's job with yesterday's tools and yesterday's concepts.
There was no such thing as perfect privacy, life was a perpetual concert-hall recital with a captive audience.
Does a dragon still sing from within a withered tree?
Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet.
I'm an atheist. But I absolutely love religions and the rituals. Even though I don't believe in God. We celebrate pretty much every religion in our family with the kids. They love it, and when they say, 'Are we Jewish?' or 'Are we Catholic?' I say, 'Well, I'm not, but you can choose when you're 18. But isn't this fun that we do seders and the Advent calendar?'
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