Liberty Of Speech Quotes

• If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.

  William J. Brennan

  Government, Expression, Ideas

  "Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397". 1989.

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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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  Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Freedom, Independent, Science

  Andrew M. Allison, Willard Cleon Skousen, M. Richard Maxfield, Benjamin Franklin (1982). “The Real Benjamin Franklin”

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  If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.

  John Stuart Mill

  Freedom, Philosophy, Differences

  On Liberty ch. 2 (1859)

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• I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, Government, Political

  Letter to Archibald Stewart, 23 Dec. 1791

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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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• 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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• The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  War, Hero, People

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

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• Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

  James Madison

  Exercise, Secular Society, Law

  Virginia. General Assembly. House of Delegates, J. W. Randolph, James Madison (1850). “The Virginia Report of 1799-1800: Touching the Alien and Sedition Laws; Together with the Virginia Resolutions of December 21, 1798, Including the Debate and Proceedings Thereon in the House of Delegates of Virginia and Other Documents Illustrative of the Report and Resolutions”, p.136

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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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• Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.

  Potter Stewart

  Freedom Of Speech, Society, Censorship In Books

  "United States v. Ginzburg, 383 U.S. 463". Dissenting opinion, 1965.

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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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• Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, Media, Liberty

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.71, Rowman & Littlefield

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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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• If we don't believe in free expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

  Noam Chomsky

  Inspirational, Relationship, Freedom

  Interview with John Pilger on BBC's "The Late Show", November 25, 1992.

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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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• 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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• Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.

  John Milton

  Freedom, Giving, Liberty

  'Areopagitica' (1644) p. 34

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• In America the majority raises formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion; within these barriers an author may write what he pleases, but woe to him if he goes beyond them.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Freedom, Writing, America

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2001). “Democracy in America”, p.110, Penguin

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• Censorship always defeats it own purpose, for it creates in the end the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion.

  Henry Steele Commager

  Real, Exercise, Censorship In Books

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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; which is the right of every man as far as by it he does not hurt or control the right of another; and this is the only check it ought to suffer and the only bounds it ought to know.... Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freedom of speech, a thing terrible to traitors.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Wisdom, Hurt, Freedom

  Andrew M. Allison, Willard Cleon Skousen, M. Richard Maxfield, Benjamin Franklin (1982). “The Real Benjamin Franklin”

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  Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

  James Madison

  Education, Wisdom, Freedom

  1822; cited in U.S. Senate, Alleged Assassination Plots (1975).

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• I keep telling myself to calm down, to take less of an interest in things and not to get so excited, but I still care a lot about liberty, freedom of speech and expression, and fairness in journalism.

  Kate Adie

  Expression, Freedom Of Speech, Liberty

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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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• ...The Bill of Rights is a literal and absolute document. The First Amendment doesn't say you have a right to speak out unless the government has a 'compelling interest' in censoring the Internet. The Second Amendment doesn't say you have the right to keep and bear arms until some madman plants a bomb. The Fourth Amendment doesn't say you have the right to be secure from search and seizure unless some FBI agent thinks you fit the profile of a terrorist. The government has no right to interfere with any of these freedoms under any circumstances.

  Harry Browne

  Thinking, Fbi Agents, Rights

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