Free Speech Quotes - Page 3

• I think, with never-ending gratitude, that the young women of today do not and can never know at what price their right to free speech and to speak at all in public has been earned.

  Lucy Stone

  Gratitude, Women, Thinking

  "The Progress of Fifty Years". Speech at the Congress of Women at the Woman's Building of the World's Columbian Exposition (World's Fair), Chicago, Illinois, digital.library.upenn.edu. 1893.

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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• There is tonic in the things that men do not love to hear. Free speech is to a great people what the winds are to oceans ... and where free speech is stopped miasma is bred, and death comes fast.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Ocean, Men, Wind

  Henry Ward Beecher (1866). “Royal truths”, p.131

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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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• 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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• 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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• The US constitution's First Amendment rights only cover Americans, but I believe that in a democracy the competition of ideas and free speech should combat beliefs that it does not agree with - more speech and debate, not censorship.

  Joichi Ito

  Believe, Ideas, Rights

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• We shouldn't have free speech.

  Robin Quivers

  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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• 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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