Speak, speak, speak, & remember that whenever anyone's liberty to speak is denied, your liberty is denied also, & your place is where the attack is.
Voltairine De CleyreRead
Make no laws whatever concerning speech, and speech will be free; so soon as you make a declaration on paper that speech shall be free, you will have a hundred lawyers proving that "freedom does not mean abuse, nor liberty license," and they will define freedom out of existence.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True freedom of speech exists when there are no regulations on it, as rules often lead to interpretations that limit that freedom.
Voltairine De Cleyre's quote emphasizes the idea that the moment laws are established to define free speech, they risk transforming that freedom into a limited concept open to subjective interpretations. By attempting to regulate speech, society may inadvertently constrain the very liberty it seeks to protect, thereby undermining the essence of freedom itself.
Themes
FreedomSpeechLawLibertyInterpretation
In practice
Example use cases
During a panel discussion on civil liberties, one could quote this to emphasize the dangers of overregulation of speech.
More from Voltairine De Cleyre
All quotes →Anarchism, to me, means not only the denial of authority, not only a new economy, but a revision of the principles of morality. It means the development of the individual as well as the assertion of the individual. It means self-responsibility, and not leader worship.
Voltairine De CleyreRead
I think it can be shown that the law makes ten criminals where it restrains one.
Voltairine De CleyreRead
The question of souls is old—we demand our bodies, now. We are tired of promises, god is deaf, and his church is our worst enemy.
Voltairine De CleyreRead
Is it not enough that 'things are cruel and blind'? Must we also be cruel and blind?
Voltairine De CleyreRead
Government is as unreal, as intangible, as unapproachable as God. Try it, if you don't believe it. Seek through the legislative halls of America and find, if you can, the Government. In the end you will be doomed to confer with the agent, as before.
Voltairine De CleyreRead
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