{ "type": "book", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "title": "A Republic, If You Can Keep It", "slug": "a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gorsuch/a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gorsuch/a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gorsuch/a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it.md", "author": { "name": "Neil Gorsuch", "slug": "neil-gorsuch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gorsuch" }, "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/forum-books/neil-gorsuch/a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it_978-05-2557-680-8.jpg", "quotes_count": 3, "quotes": [ { "id": "cd2f142c-09ed-4ccf-bf03-20d7ccfcd363", "slug": "i-ask-my-kids", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gorsuch/a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it/i-ask-my-kids", "text": "I ask my kids every semester when I teach ethics. I finish the semester by asking them to spend five minutes writing their obituary. They hate it. They think it is corny, and it might be a little corny. And then I ask them if they will volunteer to read some of them, and when they do, it always becomes clear people want to be remembered for the kindnesses they showed other people. And what I point out to them- what I try to point out- is that it is not how big your bank account balance is. Nobody ever puts that in their draft obituary, or that they billed the most hours, or that they won the most cases. It is how you treated other people along the way that matters. And for me, it is the words I read yesterday from Increase Sumner's tombstone [see page 321]. And that means as a person I would like to be remembered as a good dad, a good husband, kind and mild in private life, dignified and firm in public life. I have no illusions that I will be remembered for very long. If Byron White is nearly forgotten, as he is now and said he would be, I have no illusions that I will last five minutes. That is as it should be.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 322, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "kindness", "slug": "kindness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Gorsuch#A_Republic,_If_You_Can_Keep_It_(2019)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:29" }, { "id": "8b1e8da7-0b17-4885-8317-43e6a9e28064", "slug": "courage-remains-as-important", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gorsuch/a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it/courage-remains-as-important", "text": "Courage remains as important in the legal profession today as it was then. Throughout our history lawyers who have made the greatest mark on this country haven't done so because they were smarter or were born into better families or held more important positions; it was because they were willing to stand firm for justice in the face of immense pressure and often at grave personal costs.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 182, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "courage", "slug": "courage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/courage" }, { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Gorsuch#A_Republic,_If_You_Can_Keep_It_(2019)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:29" }, { "id": "4c2648fb-acd2-4bbe-a752-c9e168977306", "slug": "what-do-i-mean", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gorsuch/a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it/what-do-i-mean", "text": "What do I mean by courage? Well, let's start with what I don't mean. I don't mean blind bullheadedness or rudeness or incivility. We have all too much of those things in our culture and in our profession. They are pretenders of courage, not the real thing. For true courage will often require you to admit a mistake, hold your tongue, or wait to fight another day. When it requires you to stand up against the powers arrayed around you, it will also require you to do so with not just respect but affection for your fellow citizen. What I mean by courage is what Atticus Finch meant by it in To Kill a Mockingbird. You may remember that Finch defended an African-American man wrongly accused of raping a white woman in Alabama during the Great Depression- and that in taking on the representation he faced criticism and threats from his friends and community. As he told his daughter in the book: \"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.\"", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 182, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "courage", "slug": "courage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/courage" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Gorsuch#A_Republic,_If_You_Can_Keep_It_(2019)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:29" } ] }