Ideas don't desert you; ideas aren't treasonous to you, but people can be.
Alan DershowitzRead
Being offended by freedom of speech should never be regarded as a justification for violence.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Freedom of speech should not be used as a reason to justify violent reactions.
This quote emphasizes the importance of freedom of speech as a fundamental right, suggesting that while individuals may feel offended by certain expressions, such feelings should not provoke violent responses. It advocates for tolerance and understanding in a society where diverse opinions exist, highlighting the need to address disagreements through dialogue rather than aggression.
Themes
FreedomSpeechViolenceToleranceOffenseDialogue
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a debate about the limits of free speech.
More from Alan Dershowitz
All quotes βEd Koch will never "rest in peace." That was not his way. He was always nervously squirming, while making others squirm as well. Comfort was not his goal. He understood that to be a proud and assertive Jew meant never being able to leave a sigh of relief and say "it's over, we are at peace, we can now put down our guard and relax."
Alan DershowitzRead
It's never acceptable to target civilians. It violates the Geneva Accords, it violates the international law of war and it violates all principles of morality.
Alan DershowitzRead
When I was growing up, my mother would always say, 'It will go on your permanent record.' There was no 'permanent record.' If there were a 'permanent record,' I'd never be able to be a lawyer. I was such a bum, in elementary school and high school... There is a permanent record today and it's called the Internet.
Alan DershowitzRead
A good lawyer knows how to shut up when he's won his case.
Alan DershowitzRead
Scientists search for truth. Philosophers search for morality. A criminal trial searches for only one result: proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
Alan DershowitzRead
Similar quotes
But what a weak barrier is truth when it stands in the way of an hypothesis!
Mary WollstonecraftRead
We go along, without a fixed itinerary, yet at the same time with an end (what end?) in mind, and with the aim of reaching the end. A search for the end, a dread of the end: the obverse and the reverse of the same act.
Octavio PazRead
Do not neglect this body. This is the house of God; take care of it, only in this body can God be realized.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead
Thus let me live, unseen, unknown, Thus unlamented let me die, Steal from the world, and not a stone Tell where I lie.
Alexander PopeRead
Is this the curse of modernity, to live in a world without judgment, without perspective, no context for understanding or distinguishing what is real and what is imagined, what is manipulated and what is by chance beautiful, what is shadow and what is flesh?
Terry Tempest WilliamsRead
You can't escape the past in Paris, and yet what's so wonderful about it is that the past and present intermingle so intangibly that it doesn't seem to burden.
Allen GinsbergRead