Free Speech Quotes - Page 3

• The west has fiscalised its basic power relationships through a web of contracts, loans, shareholdings, bank holdings and so on. In such an environment it is easy for speech to be "free" because a change in political will rarely leads to any change in these basic instruments. Western speech, as something that rarely has any effect on power, is, like badgers and birds, free.

  Julian Assange

  Political Will, Bird, West

  "Julian Assange answers your questions". Q&A, www.theguardian.com. December 3, 2010.

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• All speech should be presumed to be protected by the Constitution, and a heavy burden should be placed on those who would censor to demonstrate with relative certainty that the speech at issue, if not censored, would lead to irremediable and immediate serious harm.

  Alan Dershowitz

  Issues, Freedom Of Speech, Serious

  Alan Dershowitz (2008). “Finding, Framing, and Hanging Jefferson: A Lost Letter, a Remarkable Discovery, and Freedom of Speech in an Age of Terrorism”, p.30, John Wiley & Sons

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• No danger flowing from speech can be deemed clear and present unless the incidence of the evil apprehended is so imminent that it may befall before there is an opportunity for full discussion. Only an emergency can justify repression.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Opportunity, Evil, Justice

  Whitney v. California (concurring opinion) (1927) See OliverWendell Holmes, Jr. 29

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• Nor was it only from the millions of slaves that chains had been removed; the whole nation had been in bondage; free speech had been suppressed.

  Matthew Simpson

  Speech, Slave, Bondage

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• Those who won our independence by revolution were not cowards. They did not fear political change. They did not exalt order at the cost of liberty.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Character, Order, Political

  Whitney v. California (concurring opinion) (1927) See OliverWendell Holmes, Jr. 29

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• While even pornography is protected as free speech, the courts have consciously undermined religious speech and freedom of religion for years.

  Ernest Istook

  Religious, Years, Speech

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• My own opinion is enough for me. And I claim the right to defend it against any consensus, any majority anywhere, any place, any time. And anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, get in line and kiss my ass.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Kissing, Numbers, Lines

  "Charlie Hebdo, Hate Speech and Christopher Hitchens" by Ronald Bailey, reason.com. January 14, 2015.

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• These are all voluntary resources which help parents sort out the choices without infringing on the artists rights to free speech, which is something that we respect.

  Tipper Gore

  Artist, Rights, Choices

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds.

  Thurgood Marshall

  Men, Giving, Freedom Of Speech

  Thurgood Marshall, Mark V. Tushnet (2001). “Thurgood Marshall: His Speeches, Writings, Arguments, Opinions, and Reminiscences”, p.11, Chicago Review Press

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• It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.

  Abe Fortas

  Teacher, Rights, Expression

  Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Community School Dist. (1969)

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• The general rule of law is, that the noblest of human productions knowledge, truths ascertained, conceptions and ideas become, after voluntary communication to others, free as the air to common use.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Communication, Air, Law

  "International News Service v. Associated Press". Dissenting opinion, 1918.

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• Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Reading, Mean, Men

  Letter to Edward Carrington, 16 Jan. 1787

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• The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum.

  Adlai E. Stevenson

  Freedom Of Speech, Society, Principles

  The New York Times, January 19, 1962.

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• Ignorant free speech often works against the speaker. That is one of several reasons why it must be given rein instead of suppressed.

  Anna Quindlen

  Ignorant, Speech, Reason Why

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• Those who won our independence believed that the final end of the state was to make men free to develop their faculties... They valued liberty both as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty... that public discussion is a political duty; and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Mean, Men, Political

  Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357, 375, 1927.

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• Without Freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom;and no such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Wisdom, Freedom, Patriotic

  Benjamin Franklin (2016). “Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: new annotated edition”, p.28, MarcoPolo

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• The Framers of the Constitution knew that free speech is the friend of change and revolution. But they also knew that it is always the deadliest enemy of tyranny.

  Hugo Black

  Friendship, Enemy, Speech

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• Both free speech rights and property rights belong legally to individuals, but their real function is social, to benefit vast numbers of people who do not themselves exercise these rights.

  Thomas Sowell

  Real, Exercise, Numbers

  "Is Reality Optional?". Book by Thomas Sowell, 1993.

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• Imagination is more important than knowledge.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Positive, Leadership

  Albert Einstein (2015). “Bite-Size Einstein: Quotations on Just About Everything from the Greatest Mind of the Twentieth Century”, p.32, St. Martin's Press

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• Now is the time to draw a clean, clear, bright line and say if you are engaging in speech over the Internet you do not have to check with your lawyer or your accountant. You are a free American, and you have the opportunity to engage in free speech over the Internet.

  John Doolittle

  Opportunity, Lines, Speech

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• We shouldn't have free speech.

  Robin Quivers

  Speech

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• Those who won our independence... valued liberty as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Happiness, Courage, Mean

  Louis D. Brandeis (2009). “Other People's Money and How the Bankers Use It”, p.10, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Today it is becoming harder to speak out, with the inception of the Patriot Act, the president has legislated free speech to be a crime.

  Frank Serpico

  Speaks Out, President, Speech

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• All the big powers... they've silenced me. So much for free speech and choice on this fundamental human right.

  Jack Kevorkian

  Choices, Fundamentals, Speech

  "Between the Dying and the Dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian's Life and the Battle to Legalize Euthanasia". Book by Neal Nicol and Harry Wylie, p. 247, 2006.

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• Free speech is life itself.

  Salman Rushdie

  Speech, Censorship

  "Excerpts From Rushdie's Address: 1,000 Days 'Trapped Inside a Metaphor'". www.nytimes.com. December 12, 1991.

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