quotations about freedom of speech
The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum--even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.
NOAM CHOMSKY
The Common Good
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
EVELYN BEATRICE HALL
Helvetius: The Contradiction
Everyone is in favour 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 says anything back, that is an outrage.
WINSTON CHURCHILL
remarks to Parliament, October 13, 1943
Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
The New England Courant, July 9, 1722
Freedom of speech is of no use to a man who has nothing to say and freedom of worship is of no use to a man who has lost his God.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
speech, Nov. 2, 1940
There's no fine line between "free speech" and "hate speech": Free speech is hate speech; it's for the speech you hate -- and for all your speech that the other guy hates. If you don't have free speech, then you can't have an honest discussion.
MARK STEYN
"Stay Quiet and You'll Be Okay", Steynonline, May 9, 2015
We have these cultural norms, and we allow people to say ugly things. We don't have to like it, we don't have to invite them to our dinner parties, but you should let them say it.
JEFF BEZOS
bOinGbOinG, June 1, 2016
Freedom of speech is useless without freedom of thought.
SPIRO AGNEW
speech, Dec. 3, 1969
For if Men are to be precluded from offering their Sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences, that can invite the consideration of Mankind, reason is of no use to us; the freedom of Speech may be taken away, and, dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
address to the officers of the army, Mar. 15, 1783
Ideas about the scope and meaning of freedom of speech do expand and contract with the times. At the moment, we live in an age that is very permissive, both legally and socially, on a wide range of subjects from Karl Marx to kinky sex. This has not always been the case. Things that even children freely see and read and hear today -- writings, pictures, words -- would have been banned as just plain obscene, even for adults, as recently as the middle of the twentieth century.
LAWRENCE MEIR FRIEDMAN
American Law in the 20th Century
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
GEORGE ORWELL
preface, Animal Farm
What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.
SALMAN RUSHDIE
In Good Faith
The worst way to defend our freedom is to let our leaders start taking away our freedoms! It is exactly during times like these [a national crisis] that we need more freedom of speech, a strong and critical press, and a citizenry that is not afraid to stand up and say that the emperor has no clothes.
MICHAEL MOORE
Stupid White Men
Freedom of expression is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom.
BENJAMIN N. CARDOZO
Palko v. Connecticut, 1937
Free speech is like the angel that delivered Saint Peter from prison. Its mission is to rescue from captivity some divinely inspired truth or principle, which unjust men have locked in dungeons or bound in chains.
THEODORE TILTON
"Free Speech", The Modern American Speaker
In those wretched Countries where a Man cannot call his Tongue his own, he can scarce call any Thing else his own.
JOHN TRENCHARD & THOMAS GORDON
Cato's Letters
While, legally and constitutionally, speech may be free, the space in which that freedom can be exercised has been snatched from us and auctioned to the highest bidders.
ARUNDHATI ROY
An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire
We should not have either a blunt knife or a freedom of speech which is ill-managed.
EPICTETUS
Enchiridion
Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
"On Freedom of Speech and the Press", Pennsylvania Gazette, November 17, 1737
Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, founded in injustice and wrong, are sure to tremble, if men are allowed to reason of righteousness, temperance, and of a judgment to come in their presence.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Plea for Free Speech in Boston, June 8, 1880