Free Speech Quotes - Page 4

• That said, the question remains: how to strike the balance between free speech and mutual respect in this mixed-up world, both blessed and cursed with instant communication? We should not fight fire with fire, threats with threats.

  Timothy Garton Ash

  Blessed, Communication, Fighting

  "Our media must give Muslims the chance to debate with each other" by Timothy Garton Ash, www.theguardian.com. February 9, 2006.

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• The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

  Men, Fire, Liberty

  Schenck v. United States (1919).

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• The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy. One's right to life, liberty and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly may not be submitted to vote; they depend on no elections.

  Robert H. Jackson

  Rights, Political, Liberty

  "West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624". Judicial opinion, 1943.

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• It is easy to believe in freedom of speech for those with whom we agree.

  Leo McKern

  Freedom, Believe, Speech

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• It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

  Mark Twain

  Wisdom, Country, Freedom

  Following the Equator ch. 20, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar" (1897)

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• Free speech is intended to protect the controversial and even outrageous word; and not just comforting platitudes too mundane to need protection.

  Colin Powell

  Justice, Comforting, Needs

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• I don't think we should be deprived of the privilege of free speech

  Loretta Swit

  Thinking, Speech, Privilege

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• The Democrats do not like free speech. And that's not an exaggeration.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Democrat, Exaggeration

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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• How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Freedom, Men, Liberty

  Soren Kierkegaard (1946). “Either/or”

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• It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Men, Freedom Of Speech, Censorship In Books

  Louis Dembitz Brandeis, Louis D. Brandeis School of Law (2006). “Brandeis at 150: the Louisville perspective : a sesquicentennial commemoration”

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• The common notion that free speech prevails in the United States always makes me laugh.

  H. L. Mencken

  Laughing, United States, Speech

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Diary of H. L. Mencken”, p.635, Vintage

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• By placing discretion in the hands of an official to grant or deny a license, such a statute creates a threat of censorship that by its very existence chills free speech.

  Harry A. Blackmun

  Hands, Ethos, Speech

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• We will not be led like sheep to the slaughter.

  Abba Kovner

  Freedom, Taken, Patriotic

  "Freedom fighters" by Andrew Pulver, www.theguardian.com. February 23, 2001.

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• Criticism of government finds sanctuary in several portions of the 1st Amendment. It is part of the right of free speech. It embraces freedom of the press

  Hugo Black

  Government, Criticism, Sanctuary

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• We hear about constitutional rights, free speech and the free press. Every time I hear these words I say to myself, "That man is a Red, that man is a Communist." You never hear a real American talk like that.

  Frank Hague

  Real, Men, Rights

  Speech to the Jersey City Chamber of Commerce (12 January 1938), as quoted in "The Last Three Miles : Politics, Murder, and the Construction of America's First Superhighway" by Steven Hart, (p. 137), 2007.

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• Marks on paper are free - free speech - press - pictures all go together I suppose.

  Georgia O'Keeffe

  Flower, Freedom Of Speech, Together

  Georgia O'Keeffe, Anita Pollitzer (1990). “Lovingly, Georgia: The Complete Correspondence of Georgia O'Keeffe and Anita Pollitzer”, Touchstone Books

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• If Thomas Jefferson had heard us, he probably would have said, 'We shouldn't have free speech.'

  Robin Quivers

  Speech, Said, Heard

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• Corporations have free speech, but they can't speak like you and me. They don't have mouths or hands.

  Stephen Colbert

  Hands, Mouths, Speech

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• A function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it invites a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have profound unsettling effects as it passes for acceptance of an idea.

  William O. Douglas

  Acceptance, Ideas, Government

  "Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 U.S. 1". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. May 16, 1949.

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• Because of the free speech clause in the First Amendment, which is very clear, "The government shall make no law abridging freedom of speech," and it literally is about political speech. You can say anything you want about politics, a candidate, and the government cannot stop you. And the Democrats hate that.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Hate, Political, Freedom Of Speech

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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• Free speech is important whether you like what's being said or not. The reason why it's so important is that the entire spectrum of ideas needs to be heard so that the best ones are embraced and rise to the top. If you're a liberal and don't like conservative speech and you try to stifle that conservative speech, you need to be prepared for your own progressive speech to be stifled when the power shifts out of your favor.

  Shepard Fairey

  Important, Trying, Conservative

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

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• Those who call for censorship in the name of the oppressed ought to recognize it is never the oppressed who determine the bounds of censorship.

  Aryeh Neier

  Names, Political, Censorship

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• The jury system puts a ban upon intelligence and honesty and a premium upon ignorance, stupidity and perjury.

  Mark Twain

  Honesty, Ignorance, Stupidity

  Roughing It ch. 48 (1872)

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• The price paid for intellectual pacification is the sacrifice of the entire moral courage of the human mind.

  John Stuart Mill

  Courage, Sacrifice, Intellectual

  John Stuart Mill (1859). “On Liberty”, p.60

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• Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re really in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of free speech.

  Noam Chomsky

  Views, Freedom Of Speech, Favors

  "Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media". Documentary, Biography, War, www.imdb.com. 1992.

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