Civil government cannot let any group ride roughshod over others simply because their consciences tell them to do so.
Robert H. JacksonRead
The priceless heritage of our society is the unrestricted constitutional right of each member to think as he will. Thought control is a copyright of totalitarianism, and we have no claim to it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of free thought in a democratic society and warns against totalitarianism.
Robert H. Jackson's quote underscores the significance of individual freedom of thought as a fundamental right in a society governed by constitutional principles. By stating that thought control represents totalitarianism, he highlights the dangers of any system that seeks to suppress or regulate personal beliefs, making a case for the necessity of protecting this liberty as an essential aspect of a free and open society.
Themes
FreedomThoughtTotalitarianismSocietyRight
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about civil liberties at a university event.
More from Robert H. Jackson
All quotes →While the Nation has forbidden monopoly by one set of laws it has been creating them by another. Patent laws, valuable as they may be in some respects, often father monopoly.
Robert H. JacksonRead
Freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order.
Robert H. JacksonRead
To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary and spontaneous instead of a compulsory routine is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds.
Robert H. JacksonRead
In our country are evangelists and zealots of many different political, economic and religious persuasions whose fanatical conviction is that all thought is divinely classified into two kinds - that which is their own and that which is false and dangerous.
Robert H. JacksonRead
We must make clear to the Germans that the wrong for which their fallen leaders are on trial is not that they lost the war, but that they started it. And we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into a trial of the causes of the war, for our position is that no grievances or policies will justify resort to aggressive war. It is utterly renounced and condemned as an instrument of policy.
Robert H. JacksonRead
Similar quotes
There can be a true grandeur in any degree of submissiveness, because it springs from loyalty to the laws and to an oath, and not from baseness of soul.
Simone WeilRead
I am proud of my country. But we need to unite to make a unified India, free of communalism and casteism. We need to build India into a land of equal opportunity for all. We can be a truly great nation if we set our sights high and deliver to the people the fruits of continued growth, prosperity and equal opportunity.
Ratan TataRead
If you are happy in a dream, Ammu, does that count? Estha asked. "Does what count?" "The happiness does it count?". She knew exactly what he meant, her son with his spoiled puff. Because the truth is, that only what counts, counts....."If you eat fish in a dream, does it count?" Does it mean you've eaten fish?
Arundhati RoyRead
A man is not aware of his virtues (if any). Nevertheless, one hopes that they exist.
Edward AbbeyRead
The boy was lying, fast asleep, on a rude bed upon the floor; so pale with anxiety, and sadness, and the closeness of his prison, that he looked like death; not death as it shews in shroud and coffin, but in the guise it wears when life has just departed; when a young and gentle spirit has, but an instant, fled to Heaven: and the gross air of the world has not had time to breathe upon the changing dust it hallowed.
Charles DickensRead
Repentance means turning from as much as you know of your sin to give as much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of your God, and as our knowledge grows at these three points so our practice of repentance has to be enlarged.
J. I. PackerRead