Quotes on Free Speech

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't mix.

Let us labor for the security of free thought, free speech, pure morals, unfettered religious sentiments, and equal rights and privileges for all men, irrespective of nationality, color, or religion;.... leave the matter of religious teaching to the family altar, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contribution. Keep church and state forever separate.

Because if you don't stand up for the stuff you don't like, when they come for the stuff you do like, you've already lost.

It's now very common to hear people say 'I'm rather offended by that'.

The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop.

Free expression is the base of human rights, the root of human nature and the mother of truth. To kill free speech is to insult human rights, to stifle human nature and to suppress truth.

Free speech is the bedrock of liberty and a free society. And yes, it includes the right to blaspheme and offend.

Patriotism threatens free speech with death. It is infuriated by thoughtful hesitation, constructive criticism of our leaders and pleas for peace. It despises people of foreign birth. It has specifically blamed homosexuals, feminists and the American Civil Liberties Union. In other words, the American flag stands for intimidation, censorship, violence, bigotry, sexism, homophobia and shoving the Constitution through a paper shredder. Whom are we calling terrorists here?

Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds.

A function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it invites a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have profound unsettling effects as it passes for acceptance of an idea.

Let us contemplate our forefathers, and posterity, and resolve to maintain the rights bequeathed to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. The necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude and perseverance. Let us remember that "if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom," it is a very serious consideration that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event.

I think the Negro people should feel secure enough by now to face a reasonable ridicule without terror. I am unalterably opposed to all efforts to put down free speech, whatever the excuse.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses.

The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.

Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage.

Good laws lead to the making of better ones; bad ones bring about worse.

I love to doubt as well as know.

The price paid for intellectual pacification is the sacrifice of the entire moral courage of the human mind.

Security is when everything is settled, when nothing can happen to you; security is the denial of life.