First Amendment Quotes

• Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.

  Harry S. Truman

  Country, Fear, Voice

  United States. President (1945-1953 : Truman), Harry S. Truman (1961). “Harry S. Truman: Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President, 1945-53”

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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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• 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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• 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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• Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.

  William O. Douglas

  Teaching, Rights In America, Political Revolution

  "The One Un-American Act". William O. Douglas' speech to the Author's Guild Council in New York on receiving the 1951 Lauterbach Award, December 3, 1952.

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• An unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the First Amendment.

  Hugo Black

  Religious, Political, Firsts

  NewYork Times Co. v. Sullivan (concurring opinion) (1964)

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• The first amendment protects free speech, but if you don't have freedom of thought, do you really have freedom of speech?

  Rob Kampia

  Freedom Of Speech, Firsts, Free Speech

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• 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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• 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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• The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.

  Anthony Kennedy

  Freedom, Government, Doe

  International Society for Krishna Consciousness v. Lee, 505 U.S. 672, caselaw.lp.findlaw.com. June 26, 1992.

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• They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Inspirational, Happiness, Peace

  Benjamin Franklin, William-Temple Franklin (1818). “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of (the Same), Continued to the Time of His Death by William Temple Franklin. - London, H. Colburn 1818”, p.270

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• First Amendment freedoms are most in danger when the government seeks to control thought or to justify its laws for that impermissible end. The right to think is the beginning of freedom, and speech must be protected from the government because speech is the beginning of thought.

  Anthony Kennedy

  Thinking, Government, Law

  Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, 535 U.S. 234, 2002.

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• The very reason for the First Amendment is to make the people of this country free to think, speak, write and worship as they wish, not as the Government commands.

  Hugo Black

  Country, Writing, Thinking

  "Floyd Abrams: Country Desperately Needs to Be Thinking About Free Speech". campus.asu.edu. September 12, 2017.

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• Just as the strength of the Internet is chaos, so the strength of our liberty depends upon the chaos and cacophony of the unfettered speech the First Amendment protects.

  Stewart Dalzell

  Liberty, Cacophony, Speech

  "Judges Turn Back Law To Regulate Internet Decency" by Peter H. Lewis, www.nytimes.com. June 13, 1996.

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• The First Amendment has the same role in my life as a citizen and a writer as the sun has in our ecosystem.

  Michael Chabon

  Ecosystems, House, Roles

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• If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.

  Thurgood Marshall

  Business, Book, Mean

  Stanley v. Georgia (1969)

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  Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

  John Adams

  Bible, God, Religious

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1854). “Works: with a life of the author”, p.229

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• I think it is appropriate that we pay tribute to this great constitutional principle which is enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution: the principle of religious independence, of religious liberty, of religious freedom.

  John F. Kennedy

  Religious, Thinking, Independence

  "John F. Kennedy: 1961 : containing the public messages, speeches, and statements of the president, January 20 to December 31, 1961" by John F. Kennedy, Washington: Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1962.

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• The right really dominates radio, and it's amazing how much energy the right spends telling us that the press is slanted to the left when it really isn't. They want to shut other people up. They really don't understand the First Amendment.

  Roger Ebert

  People, Energy, Want

  Interview With Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. August 1, 2003.

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• Without either the first or second amendment, we would have no liberty; the first allows us to find out what's happening, the second allows us to do something about it! The second will be taken away first, followed by the first and then the rest of our freedoms.

  Unknown

  Freedom, Taken, Gun

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• The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Life, Time, Godly

  Thomas Jefferson (1774). “A Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774)”, p.31, Academic Resources Corp

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• The dominant purpose of the First Amendment was to prohibit the widespread practice of government suppression of embarrassing information.

  William O. Douglas

  Government, Practice, Freedom Of Speech

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• I can only assume that your editorial writer tripped over the First Amendment and thought it was the office cat.

  E. B. White

  Cat, Office, Firsts

  E. B. White (1989). “The Letters of E. B. White”, Perennial

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• The First Amendment doesn't give anybody the right to be heard. People don't have to listen to you.

  Rush Limbaugh

  People, Giving, Firsts

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• But I know newspapers. They have the first amendment and they can tell any lie knowing it's a lie and they're protected if the person's famous or it's a company.

  Steve Wozniak

  Lying, Knowing, Politics

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