Template:Free speech quotes
Free speech - Quotes and cases
Speaking of Free speech
- "Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.” – Henry Louis Gates.
- “You win a debate with a better argument, not by force.” – Frank Sonnenberg.
- “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” – George Orwell.
- "If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter."
George Washington
- "Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light." George Washington
- "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."
- "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." Mark Twain
- "Freedom of speech means freedom for those who you despise, and freedom to express the most despicable views. It also means that the government cannot pick and choose which expressions to authorize and which to prevent." Alan Dershowitz
- "Hand in hand with freedom of speech goes the power to be heard, to share in the decisions of government which shape men's lives." Robert Kennedy
- "It is clear that not in one thing alone, but in many ways equality and freedom of speech are a good thing."
Herodotus
“The smell of the printer's ink is the incense of modern revolutionary organization.” Nicholas Bonneville in 1789
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“Thanks to printing and the press, we have today means of intellectual propaganda that the ancients did not imagine. Without going to converse in the shops and preach in the squares, we send the radiations of our thoughts directly in the hearts of men of good will.” Theophile Thore, defended himself at his trial in 1840.
“For let us be honest in facing this fundamental fact: Those who cultivate competence, accuracy, and intellectual honesty tend to be the smallest segment of the journalistic community, their audience the smallest sector of the public.” The Flight from Truth: The Reign of Deceit in the Age of Information Jean Francois Revel.
Case Law
"A function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purposes when it induces 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 presses for acceptance of an idea." Writing for the court, Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 U.S. 1 (1949)
"No matter what the legislature may say, a man has the right to make his speech, print his handbill, compose his newspaper, and deliver his sermon without asking anyone's permission. The contrary suggestion is abhorrent to our traditions." Dissenting, Poulos v. New Hampshire, 345 U.S. 395 (1953)