"I really try at least to come back and answer the question as to whether that was really the best way to do that and was I really thinking straight and how did my opponents behave and how did the judges behave was needed."

Action

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Thematic Reflection

This quotation examines the core nature of Action as articulated by Floyd Abrams. Within historical and literary traditions, reflections on Action provide actionable mental models, challenging individuals to evaluate personal ethics, self-discipline, and daily actions.

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About Floyd Abrams

Floyd Abrams is an American lawyer. A member of Cahill Gordon & Reindel since 1963 and currently senior counsel. He has argued 13 First Amendment cases in front of the Supreme Court of the United States, more than any other attorney. Abrams was co-counsel to The New York Times in the 1971 Pentagon Papers case, and represented Judith Miller in the CIA leak grand jury investigation, Standard & Poor's, and Lorillard Tobacco Company among others. He also represented Senator Mitch McConnell in the Citizens United 2010 Supreme Court case. Two of Abrams' clients had been on death row for crimes, and their convictions were overruled by the Supreme Court. A documentary was released about him in 2023 called Speaking Freely.

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More by Floyd Abrams

"I think we have some serious problems now, but, if you look back over the last thirty or forty years that my book deals with, I think we are in better shape now than we would have been if all of those cases had not come down."

— Floyd Abrams
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"The principle though remains the same, and the important thing is CBS fought hard, very hard, to protect that principle and will fight again."

— Floyd Abrams
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"I think that it is important for people to understand that whether a good-guy or a bad-guy wins a case is less important than what the law is that the case results in."

— Floyd Abrams
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"I would say that the Pentagon Papers case of 1971 - in which the government tried to block the The New York Times and The Washington Post that they obtained from a secret study of how we got involved in the war in Vietnam - that is probably the most important case."

— Floyd Abrams
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More about Action

"A lot of times people look at the negative side of what they feel they can't do. I always look on the positive side of what I can do."

— Chuck Norris
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"Think? Why think! We have computers to do that for us."

— Jean Rostand
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"The people and the mindset that killed 3,000 of our fellow citizens on September 11 2001, would have killed not 3,000, but 300,000 if they could have or 3 million or 30 million. We need to do everything we can within our value systems and legal structures to make sure that doesn't happen."

— Tim Pawlenty
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"Just do the best you can. No one can do more than that."

— John Wooden
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