Free Speech Quotes - Page 2

• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• Fear of serious injury alone cannot justify oppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Fear, Men, Religion

  "Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357, 376". Concurring opinion, 1927.

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• Free speech means the right to shout 'theatre' in a crowded fire.

  Abbie Hoffman

  Freedom, Mean, Technology

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• 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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• We shouldn't have free speech.

  Robin Quivers

  Speech

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• Free speech exercised both individually and through a free press, is a necessity in any country where people are themselves free.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Country, People, Interesting

  Theodore Roosevelt (1954). “The days of Armageddon, 1900-1914”

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

  Loretta Swit

  Thinking, Speech, Privilege

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• Debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust and wide-open and that...may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.

  William J. Brennan

  Issues, Government, Freedom Of Speech

  New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964)

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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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• 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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• 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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• Free speech is meant to protect unpopular speech. Popular speech, by definition, needs no protection.

  Neal Boortz

  Voting, Freedom Of Speech, Needs

  Neal Boortz (1998). “The Terrible Truth About Liberals”, p.49, Taylor Trade Publishing

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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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• 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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• 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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• If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Education, Time, Evil

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

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