It is a socialist idea that making profits is a vice; I consider the real vice is making losses.
The United States is a land of free speech. Nowhere is speech freer - not even here where we sedulously cultivate it even in its most repulsive form.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the value of free speech, even when it encompasses distasteful opinions.
Winston Churchill's quote reflects the fundamental principle of freedom of expression in the United States, highlighting that this nation guarantees the right to speak freely, irrespective of the content of that speech. The reference to cultivating free speech in its most 'repulsive form' underscores the importance of protecting all speech, not just that which is agreeable or popular, as a cornerstone of democracy and individual liberties.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about censorship, one might quote Churchill to highlight the importance of allowing all forms of speech, even those that are controversial.
More from Winston Churchill
All quotes βThe United States is like a gigantic boiler. Once the fire is lit under it, there's no limit to the power it can generate.
Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.
I will not pretend that if I had to choose between communism and Nazism I would choose communism.
Mountaintops inspire leaders but valleys mature them.
True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
Similar quotes
The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, seek simplicity and distrust it.
Every brain is civilized, Every nerve is analyzed, Everything is criticized when you are in need.
For a government to declare a vice to be a crime, and to punish it as such, is an attempt to falsify the very nature of things. It is as absurd as it would be to declare truth to be falsehood, or falsehood truth.
My day passes between logic, whistling, going for walks, and being depressed. I wish to God that I were more intelligent and everything would finally become clear to me - or else that I needn't live much longer.
...this is a hard world to be ludicrous in, with so many human beings so reluctant to laugh, so incapable of thought, so eager to believe and snarl and hate.
Sometimes there is a difference in what is legal and what ought to be done.