Alan Dershowitz Quotes

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Alan Dershowitz

Profession : Lawyer

Birth : September 1, 1938

I was a Jewish rabbinical student for 12 years, and studied the Bible all the time.

Alan Dershowitz

If America has the right to target Osama bin Laden, or terrorists, of course Israel has the right to defend itself from terrorism.

Alan Dershowitz

I never had a strategy about my life. I didn't have enough information to have a strategy. I'm the first person in my family to go to college. I had no family mentors.

Alan Dershowitz

A criminal trial is never about seeking justice for the victim. If it were, there could be only one verdict: guilty.

Alan Dershowitz

Well, many insane people and seriously mentally ill people seem very reasonable.

Alan Dershowitz

Most liberal democracies don't try to figure out what the truth is.

Alan Dershowitz

There's no evidence that I'm aware of that guns reduce crime.

Alan Dershowitz

If you're a prosecutor, and you believe the defendant is guilty, you only talk about ultimate truth, but not intermediate truth. If you're the defense attorney, you care deeply about intermediate truth, but you tend to neglect ultimate truth.

Alan Dershowitz

I've always worked.

Alan Dershowitz

Doing something because God has said to do it does not make a person moral: it merely tells us that person is a prudential believer, akin to the person who obeys the command of an all-powerful secular king.

Alan Dershowitz

I never place limits on the potential success of my students. If they're going into acting, they're going to win the Oscar... If they're going into law, they're going to be chief justice.

Alan Dershowitz

I learn from experience.

Alan Dershowitz

I charge my wealthy clients a lot and put 10 per cent in a fund which I use to pay the expenses of my poorer clients. When the government gangs up on the poor schnook in the street, someone has to stand up for him.

Alan Dershowitz

Real heroes are those who face death for a principle - say, to save the lives of others - without any promise of reward.

Alan Dershowitz

A visit to Israel is always an experience in cognitive dissonance. The Israel you personally see and hear is so completely different from the Israel you read and hear about in the media.

Alan Dershowitz