Best rights & speech Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“One cannot have a trade union or a democratic election without freedom of speech, freedom of association and assembly. Without a democratic election, whereby people choose and remove their rulers, there is no method of securing human rights against the state. No democracy without human rights, no human rights without democracy, and no trade union rights without either. That is our belief; that is our creed.”

“Never be silent! Make your opinions known, and do not fear retribution for speaking your mind! The only ones who will aggressively try to silence you are the ones who do not respect the liberties and rights of the individual. Those people deserve our contempt, and when you draw them out of the shadows by exercising your civil right to freedom of speech, they will expose themselves for what they truly are.”

People Trying Mind Politics Individual Silence Known Liberty Opinion Rights Exercise Speech Draws Shadow Deserve Silent Contempt Freedom Of Speech Retribution Do Not Fear

Author:Derek R. Audette

“So the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is out there preserving and fighting for, and sometimes winning and sometimes losing, the fight for First Amendment rights in comics and, more generally, for freedom of speech.”

Firsts Book Sometimes Fighting Literature Winning Rights Speech Losing Defense Comic Fund Amendments Freedom Of Speech Comic Book First Amendment First Amendment Rights

Author:Neil Gaiman

“I believe there is a limit beyond which free speech cannot go, but it's a limit that's very seldom mentioned. It's the point where free speech begins to collide with the right to privacy. I don't think there are any other conditions to free speech. I've got a right to say and believe anything I please, but I haven't got a right to press it on anybody else. .... Nobody's got a right to be a nuisance to his neighbors.”

Thinking Believe I Believe Freedom Liberty Rights Conditions Media Havens Please Limits Speech Constitution Presses Neighbor Tolerance Privacy Free Speech Nuisance Collide Right To Privacy

Author:H. L. Mencken

“A theory deeply etched in our law [is that] a free society prefers to punish the few who abuse the rights of free speech after they break the law rather than to throttle them and all others beforehand.”

Law Black Justice Break Rights Theory Speech Abuse Free Speech Free Society Throttle

Author:Clarence Thomas

“The First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights in the United States Constitution were being violated in Albany again and again - freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, the equal protection of the laws - I could count at least 30 such violations. Yet the president, sworn to uphold the Constitution, and all the agencies of the United States government at his disposal, were nowhere to be seen.”

“Striking a balance in favor of individual rights has always been the right decision for us and that it remains so even when technology gives us new ways to exercise those rights. Individual liberty has never weakened us; freedom of speech, enhanced by the Net, will only make us stronger.”

Way Giving Individual Decision Liberty Technology Rights Balance Exercise Speech Stronger Remains Favors Freedom Of Speech New Ways Right Decision Individual Liberty Individual Rights

Book:Cyber Rights: Defending Free Speech in the Digital Age

Source: Cyber Rights: Defending Free Speech in the Digital Age

“There is no such thing as absolute free speech; there are only absolute rights of private property. Speech is circumscribed by private property rights. You may deliver a disquisition in my virtual or actual living room only if I permit you to so do.”

Ifs May Rooms Rights Speech Absolutes Property Permit Free Speech Living Room Private Property Property Rights

Author:Ilana Mercer

“A natural right in the strict sense is that which is naturally under a person's control, his body with its faculties of movement, feeling, thought, and speech. By extension, a natural right is what a person brings under his control without violating any other person's natural rights.”

Persons Feelings Body Natural Rights Movement Speech Faculty Strict Extensions Natural Rights

Author:Frank Van Dun

“Joe Biden will speak to the nation's largest gay rights group during a human rights convention on Friday. Then on Saturday, he is scheduled to speak to them again to apologize for whatever he said in Friday's speech.”

Humans Said Speak Nations Rights Groups Gay Speech Human Rights Conventions Apologizing Saturday Friday Gay Rights Biden

Author:Jimmy Fallon

“In terms of political contributions, the free speech rights of corporations I dont think deserve the same protections as the free speech rights of real living, breathing, voting humans.”

Thinking Humans Real Political Term Rights Speech Deserve Protection Breathing Corporations Contribution Voting Free Speech

Author:Chris Coons

“It is frequently said that speech that is intentionally provocative and therefore invites physical retaliation can be punished or suppressed. Yet, plainly no such general proposition can be sustained. Quite the contrary.... The provocative nature of the communication does not make it any the less expression. Indeed, the whole theory of free expression contemplates that expression will in many circumstances be provocative and arouse hostility. The audience, just as the speaker, has an obligation to maintain physical restraint.”

“In fact, it's the greatest threat to liberty of all kinds, whether it is freedom of religion, whether it is freedom of speech, whether it is freedom of the press, whether it is freedom of association, all of the rights that are enshrined in the First Amendment are threatened by the active, aggressive homosexual lobby and the homosexual agenda.”

“The strength of this country lies in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights and the freedom of speech and thought.”

Country Lying Rights Speech Independence Bills Freedom Of Speech Declaration Declaration Of Independence Bill Of Rights

Author:George Soros

“Nobody needs to justify why they "need" a right: the burden of justification falls on the one seeking to infringe upon the right. But even if they did, you can't give away the rights of others because they're not useful to you. More simply, the majority cannot vote away the natural rights of the minority. Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.”

Needs Giving Different Care Fall Natural Rights Speech Vote Majority Seeking Burden Don't Care Arguing Privacy Minorities Justify Justification Free Speech Natural Rights Right To Privacy

Author:Edward Snowden

“The Bill of Rights was intended to secure freedom of speech - the freedom of speech of members of parliament to speak freely rather than be at threat of... the threat of an over powerful monarch at the time.”

Speak Powerful Rights Speech Members Bills Threat Secure Freedom Of Speech Parliament Bill Of Rights Monarchs Members Of Parliament

Author:William Hague

“For the first 200 years of our nation's history, corporations were never defined by the courts as persons with free speech rights under the First Amendment. Only in recent years have we witnessed this corporate takeover of our First Amendment, culminating in the Citizens United ruling.”

Years Firsts Persons Nations United Rights Citizens Speech Court Defined Corporate Corporations Amendments Free Speech Ruling First Amendment Takeovers Citizens United

Author:John Bonifaz

“Over the centuries, we've moved on from Scripture to accumulate precepts of ethical, legal and moral philosophy. We've evolved a liberal consensus of what we regard as underpinnings of decent society, such as the idea that we don't approve of slavery or discrimination on the grounds of race or sex, that we respect free speech and the rights of the individual. All of these things that have become second nature to our morals today owe very little to religion, and mostly have been won in opposition to the teeth of religion.”

“We have our difficulties, true; but we are a wiser and a tougher nation than we were in 1932. Never have there been six years of such far flung internal preparedness in all of history. And this has been done without any dictator's power to command, without conscription of labor or confiscation of capital, without concentration camps and without a scratch on freedom of speech, freedom of the press or the rest of the Bill of Rights.”

Source: The Essential Franklin Delano Roosevelt

“The greater the importance to safeguarding the community from incitements to the overthrow of our institutions by force and violence, the more imperative is the need to preserve the constitutional rights of free speech, free press and free assembly in order to maintain the opportunity for free political discussion.”

“The First Amendment is important not only to guarantee the rights of alternative religions and of nonreligious persons in society; it is also important in setting the only possible legal and social condition for the creative health of serious religion itself.”

Firsts Persons Important Religion Social Creative Rights Conditions Serious Speech Constitution Setting Settings Alternatives Guarantees Amendments First Amendment Social Conditions

Book:Creationism on Trial: Evolution and God at Little Rock

Source: Creationism on Trial: Evolution and God at Little Rock

“It was not by accident or coincidence that the rights to freedom in speech and press were coupled in a single guaranty with the rights of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition for redress of grievances. All these, though not identical, are inseparable. They are cognate rights, and therefore are united in the First Article's assurance.”

People Firsts Peace United Rights Speech Presses Accidents Protest Articles Coincidence Assurance Identical Inseparable Grievance Petitions Redress

Author:Wiley Blount Rutledge

“America comes with both rights and responsibilities. You have, for example, the right to free speech, but you have the responsibility to not yell 'fire' in a crowded theater. If you don't live up to that responsibility, you face certain consequences. It's a simple but effective formula. Unfortunately, tenured professors are completely insulated from it. They can scream fire in their classrooms all they want - and then hide behind their tenure if anyone questions them on it.”

Source: Cowards: What Politicians, Radicals, and the Media Refuse to Say

“It is quite unlawful to demand, defend, or to grant unconditional freedom of thought, or speech, of writing or worship, as if these were so many rights given by nature to man.”

Ifs Men Writing Given Religious Rights Demand Speech Worship Scary Grants Unconditional Freedom Of Thought Unlawful

Book:A Light in the Heavens: Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII

Source: A Light in the Heavens: Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII

“Turkey, with its political intolerance, as I have described it, is prepared to march forward, to break with its taboo about the Armenians, and is making great strides with respect to human rights and freedom of speech so that it can join the European Union. This alone shows how powerful the European idea is.”

Humans Ideas Shows Political Powerful Break Rights Speech Unions Prepared Human Rights March Intolerance Freedom Of Speech Turkeys Taboo European Union Stride Rights And Freedoms Armenians

Author:Orhan Pamuk

“The choice before us is plain: Christ or chaos, conviction or compromise, discipline or disintegration. I am rather tired of hearing about our rights and privileges as Americans. The time is come - it is now - when we ought to hear about the duties and responsibilities of our citizenship. America's future depends upon her accepting and demonstrating God's government.”

“The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should therefore be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated. If the doctrine be admitted, rulers have only to declare war and they are screened at once from scrutiny. . . . In war, then, as in peace, assert the freedom of speech and of the press. Cling to this as the bulwark of all our rights and privileges.”

“Being born in Cuba, a country where freedom of speech is non-existent, it's startling to observe how Venezuela, where I was happily raised, is fast becoming Cuba's mirror image: Dismantling of fundamental democratic rights deserved by its people and citizens of the world.”

People World Country Born Rights Becoming Citizens Speech Mirrors Fundamentals Democratic Raised Freedom Of Speech Cuba Venezuela Mirror Image Democratic Rights

Author:Maria Conchita Alonso

“Some people only speak of freedom of speech while they're out of power. Once they're in power, they're ruthless in suppressing the rights of others.”

People Speak Rights Speech Freedom Of Speech Ruthless Suppressing

Author:Barack Obama

“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... Equally clear is the right to hear. To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.”

Source: Frederick Douglass: 100 Quotes on Bondage, Perseverance, and Redemption

“I actually think it is people like myself who have been fighting for our rights to free speech and I would like the right to defend my own right to free speech, not have soldiers doing it for me. I don't think I need soldiers.”

People Thinking Needs Has Beens Fighting My Own Rights Speech Soldier Free Speech

Author:Medea Benjamin

“We're looking at a president [Barack Obama] who's engaged in double-speak where he doesn't call radical Islamic terrorism by its name. Indeed, he gives a speech after the San Bernardino attack where his approach is to try to go after the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens rather than to keep us safe.”

“We need a constitutional amendment to allow the legislature to control the so-called free speech rights of corporations.”

Needs Rights Speech Corporations Amendments Free Speech Legislature Constitutional Amendments

Author:Hank Johnson

“Social media changed Chinese mindset. More and more Chinese intend to embrace freedom of speech and human rights as their birthright, not some imported American privilege. But also, it gave the Chinese a national public sphere for people to, it's like a training of their citizenship, preparing for future democracy.”

“Then President [Barack] Obama went on to argue that a citizen`s Second Amendment rights can be restricted without being infringed, just like any other rights. There are limits on your free speech and on your right to privacy. But he also made another nuanced Constitutional argument, that the rights enshrined in the Second Amendment must be balanced alongside the others rights guaranteed by the Constitution.”

Made President Rights Citizens Limits Speech Argument Constitution Arguing Barack Privacy Amendments Balanced Free Speech Second Amendment President Barack Obama Right To Privacy

Author:Melissa Harris-Perry

“The androcentric, patriarchal cultures, whatever you want to call it, are quite new. So, every economic statement should start with reproduction, not production. Every statement for human rights ought to include reproduction as a basic human right, like freedom of speech.”

Want Should Humans Culture Rights Economic Ought Speech Human Rights Productions Statements Freedom Of Speech Reproduction

Author:Gloria Steinem

“It was so crucial to the Civil Rights Movement that on June 23, 1963, Martin Luther King came to town, walked down Woodward Avenue with more than 100,000 people and delivered the first major public iteration of his "I Have A Dream" speech, two months before he did it in Washington.”

People Firsts Two Dream Rights Movement Months Kings Speech Majors Towns Civil Rights Crucial Luther June Avenues Civil Rights Movement Two Months I Have A Dream Speech

Author:David Maraniss

“Well, human rights defenders, freedom of speech advocates, lawyers that we spoke to said this is really an expansion. After the military ouster of Egypt's unpopular, but elected Islamist president in 2013, we saw political opponents being arrested by the thousands, really. Then we saw a popular comedian go off the air out of fear of retribution.”

“[Louis Brandeis] believes in natural rights of speech and liberty and the right to pursue happiness.”

Believe Natural Liberty Rights Speech Pursue Natural Rights Louis Brandeis

Author:Jeffrey Rosen

“When I looked at [Fannie Lou] Hamer and that speech it seemed to me that she had to be the bravest woman ever, to come before that body and to assert her rights, when she knew that she was going lose that battle. But she did it anyway, because she knew she was speaking not just for herself and for that day, but for me, and for all the other young women who were coming behind her. She didn't know our names, but she was working for us. I find that incredibly empowering.”

Knows Body Young Names Loses Behinds Rights Battle Speech Empowering Young Women

Author:Leah D. Daughtry

“I do think if we take the power out of Washington and bring it back to the people, if we defend the Bill of Rights, free speech, religious liberty, the Second Amendment, privacy, if we repeal Obamacare, abolish the IRS, if we get Washington out of the way of job creators, I think we can transform this country.”

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