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Free Speech Quotes

Browse 692 quotes about Free Speech.

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Free Speech Quotes

“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?”

PeopleLibertyLeaderViolenceBirthCallingSpeechPaperCriticismConstitutionUnionsFeministTerroristThoughtfulPatriotismBigotrySexismDespiseFlagsCensorshipFree SpeechHomosexualConstructiveHesitationHomophobiaCivil LibertiesIntimidationAmerican FlagConstructive Criticism
Author:Barbara Kingsolver
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“Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.”

PoliticsTeachingDangerousRevolutionSpeechDefeatLibertarianCivil RightsCensorshipFree SpeechFreedom Of SpeechRestrictionFirst AmendmentFreedom And LibertyFreedom Of ThoughtFreedom LibertyCivil LibertiesAmerican RevolutionBannedLimiting GovernmentRights And FreedomsLimited FreedomCensoredSubversionCensoringAmerican LibertyFree ThoughtBanned BooksLimiting FreedomCensorship In BooksAmerican FreedomBook BanningIntellectual FreedomPolitical RevolutionCensoring BooksFreedom To ReadFirst Amendment RightsRights In America
Author:William O. Douglas
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“If we don't believe in free expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.”

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Author:Noam Chomsky
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“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.”

IfsMayRememberSufferingLibertyMillionsRightsEventsSeriousInternetPerseveranceSakeFormerMiserableConsiderationLatterResolveContemplatingFree SpeechDoomFortitudePosterityUnbornForefathersDeliberationCircumspection
Author:Samuel Adams
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“Every time I criticize what I consider to be excesses or faults in the news business, I am accused of repression; and the leaders of the various media professional groups wave the First Amendment as they denounce me. That happens to be my amendment too. It guarantees my free speech as much as it does their freedom of the press.”

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Author:Spiro T. Agnew
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“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.”

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Author:William O. Douglas
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“The constitutional right of free speech has been declared to be the same in peace and war. In peace, too, men may differ widely as to what loyalty to our country demands, and an intolerant majority, swayed by passion or by fear, may be prone in the future, as it has been in the past, to stamp as disloyal opinions with which it disagrees.”

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Author:Louis D. Brandeis
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“The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy. One's right to life, liberty and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly may not be submitted to vote; they depend on no elections.”

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Author:Robert H. Jackson
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“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others.”

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Book:The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Inaugural addresses and messages. Replies to public addresses. Indian addresses. Miscellaneous: 1. Notes on Virginia; 2. Biographical sketches of distinguished men; 3. The batture of New Orleans
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“Curtailment of free speech is rationalized on grounds that a more compelling American tradition forbids criticism of the government when the nation is at war... Nothing can be more destructive of our fundamental democratic traditions than the vicious effort to silence dissenters.”

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Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“First Amendment freedoms are most in danger when the government seeks to control thought or to justify its laws for that impermissible end. The right to think is the beginning of freedom, and speech must be protected from the government because speech is the beginning of thought.”

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Author:Anthony Kennedy
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“Those who won our independence believed that the final end of the state was to make men free to develop their faculties... They valued liberty both as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty... that public discussion is a political duty; and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government.”

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Author:Louis D. Brandeis
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“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.”

IfsMenMayMatterReasonUseTakenMankindSeriousSpeechConsequenceSilentDumbConsiderationSentimentsInvitesOfferingSheepFree SpeechFreedom Of SpeechSlaughter
Book:Writings: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private, Selected and Published from the Original Manuscripts
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“I feel the best way to ensure Americans' freedom is to tighten restrictions on that freedom in any way possible. Only through wiretaps, illegal searches and seizures, unfettered government intrusion, a controlled media and a complete crackdown on free speech can we ensure the liberties of all people.”

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Author:John Ashcroft
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“Why does the left hate free speech? Because they don't know how to talk about the substantive merits when they are challenged. Having submerged themselves in disciplining each other by denouncing any heretics in their midst, they find themselves overwhelmed and outnumbered in America, where there is vibrant debate about all sorts of things they don't know how to begin to talk about. They resort to stomping their feet and shouting "shut up"... when they aren't prissily imploring everyone to be "civil."”

KnowsDoeAmericaPoliticalHateLeftKnow HowFeetSpeechDebateMeritMidstFree SpeechShut UpOverwhelmedResortsShoutingHereticSubmergedStomping
Author:Ann Althouse
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