John Grisham Quotes

Citizens with a conscience are not going to ignore wrong-doing simply because they'll be destroyed for it: the conscience forbids it.

We really only have two choices. Play it safe, or take a chance. For me, pulling back because of fear has always made me feel worse.

To operate based on conviction and belief requires an acceptance that your actions could get you fired. This is different from pig-headed bravado, and it is different from putting the company at risk.

A man must be sensible of the errors of the people, and upon his guard against them, and must run the risk of their displeasure sometimes, or he will never do them any good in the long run.

Sometimes, when life moves along, you're presented with situations where you find it necessary to speak because so many people either seem to be afraid to or, more sinister, are unwilling to face things and let things go and worry about their own situations.

The fear of doing right is the grand treason in times of danger.

I know what my causes are. And I care about them, so I'd rather get out there and talk about them than just play it safe.

When I'm playing timid and afraid to make a mistake, then I'm not going to play well.

The work I like to do is the work I'm most afraid of.

Some emotions are essential to law and to public principles of justice: anger at wrongdoing, fear for our safety, compassion for the pain of others, all these are good reasons to make laws that protect people in their rights.

How do you defend inaction in the face of crisis? How is that defensible for anybody?

With each book, I'm trying to do something that terrifies me.

It is difficult to constantly make courageous choices.

Government lawyers, like private ones, face the problem routinely of aiding in the defense and development of positions in whose correctness they don't believe.

I'm terrorized by a fear of failure. Failure is always there.

I remember all the stages in my career where I almost didn't have enough confidence to try for something, almost didn't have the guts to follow something I was excited about doing, because I didn't know anyone else who'd done it, or other people made me question it.

You can't play scared.

Before I was a prosecutor, I was a defense attorney. I took a cut in pay because I wanted to stand up for the victims.

Every generation will be challenged morally once in their life about its government, and they will have to say where they stand.

I learned a long time ago that there is something worse than missing the goal, and that's not pulling the trigger.

A time comes when silence is betrayal.

What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.

It’s a good thing when you don’t dare do something if you don’t think it’s right. But it’s not good when you think something’s not right because you don’t dare do it.

Courage is the most important attribute of a lawyer. It is more important than competence or vision. It can never be an elective in any law school. It can never be de-limited, dated or outworn, and it should pervade the heart, the halls of justice and the chambers of the mind.

I sometimes feel ashamed that I am devoting myself to artistic pursuits while so many of our people are suffering and dying for us. It's true that fretting never did any good.