Freedom of conscience, of education, of speech, of assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged.
Interpretation
Freedom of the press is essential for democracy, as it protects other civil liberties.
In this quote, Franklin D. Roosevelt emphasizes that the freedoms of conscience, education, speech, and assembly are foundational to a democratic society, and warns that if freedom of the press is undermined, these other freedoms would also be at risk. The quote underlines the interdependence of various civil liberties and the crucial role of a free press in safeguarding democracy.
In practice
During a speech advocating for press freedom, one might quote Roosevelt to highlight the importance of a free press.
There has been one persistent theme through all Axis propaganda. This theme has been that Americans are admittedly rich, that Americans have considerable industrial power - but that Americans are soft and decadent, that they cannot and will not unite and work and fight. ... Let them tell that to the Marines!
The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.
A war of ideas can no more be won without books than a naval war can be won without ships. Books, like ships, have the toughest armor, the longest cruising range, and mount the most powerful guns.
Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
A world turned into a stereotype, a society converted into a regiment, a life translated into a routine, make it difficult for either art or artists to survive. Crush individuality in society and you crush art as well. Nourish the conditions of a free life and you nourish the arts, too.
The signers of the Declaration of Independence did not pledge their fortunes and sacred honor so the federal government could play 'helicopter parent' to a free people. They saw government as our shared project to secure liberty, doing a few big things and doing them well.
The accords were fig leaves of democratic procedure to hide the nakedness of Stalinist dictatorship.
The damage done to this country by its own misconduct in the last few months and years, to its very heart and soul, is far greater and longer lasting than any damage that any terrorist could possibly inflict upon us.
The excellence of every government is its adaptation to the state of those to be governed by it.
The genius of impeachment lay in the fact that it could punish the man without punishing the office.
Political leaders still think things can be done through force, but that cannot solve terrorism. Backwardness is the breeding ground of terror, and that is what we have to fight.
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