Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. — Salman Rushdie
Free speech is not just a right, but a necessary component of a healthy society. — Bret Weinstein
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. — Liu Xiaobo
I think free speech is probably the coolest thing we have in this country, and again, you can label it hate speech and dismiss it, and then you're allowed to censor it. — Dana Carvey
If our hard-earned liberty, our desire to be irreverent of the old and to question the new, can be reduced to one, basic, and indispensable right, it must be the right to free speech. — Maajid Nawaz
Free speech is not some right-wing reframing of whatever; it is the foundation of Western civilization. — Konstantin Kisin
Freedom includes the right to say what others may object to and resent... The essence of citizenship is to be tolerant of strong and provocative words. — John Diefenbaker
There is freedom of speech, but I cannot guarantee freedom after speech — Idi Amin
An unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the First Amendment. — Hugo Black
Fear of serious injury alone cannot justify oppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears. — Louis D. Brandeis
Freedom of speech means that you shall not do something to people either for the views they have, or the views they express, or the words they speak or write. — Hugo Black
If there is no free speech, every single life has lived in vain — Ai Weiwei
I had a right to my own political opinions. I am a Southern woman, born with Revolutionary blood in my veins. Freedom of speech and of thought were my birthright, guaranteed, signed and sealed by the blood of our fathers. — Rose O'Neal Greenhow
Without general elections, without freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, without the free battle of opinions, life in every public institution withers away, becomes a caricature of itself, and bureaucracy rises as the only deciding factor. — Rosa Luxemburg
Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy. — Walter Cronkite
We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way. The third is freedom from want. The fourth is freedom from fear. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
Silence is golden but when it threatens your freedom it's yellow. — Edmund Burke
Freedom of conscience, of education, of speech, of assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
Freedom Of Expression Quotes
A loving relationship is one in which the loved one is free to be himself -- to laugh with me, but never at me; to cry with me, but never because of me; to love life, to love himself, to love being loved. Such a relationship is based upon freedom and can never grow in a jealous heart — Leo Buscaglia
Contrary to popular misconception, Islam does not mean peace but rather means submission to the commands of Allah alone. Therefore, Muslims do not believe in the concept of freedom of expression, as their speech and actions are determined by divine revelation and not based on people's desires. — Anjem Choudary
Young players need freedom of expression to develop as creative players... they should be encouraged to try skills without fear of failure. — Arsene Wenger
I certainly was one of the instigators in the 1960s of freedom of expression. — Sally Kirkland
A person who doesn't breathe deeply reduces the life of his body. If he doesn't move freely, he restricts the life of his body. If he doesn't feel fully, he narrows the life of his body. And if his self-expression is constricted, he limits the life of his body. — Alexander Lowen
What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist. — Salman Rushdie
If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable. — William J. Brennan
Voting is not an act of political freedom. It is an act of political conformity. Those who refuse to vote are not expressing silence. They are screaming in the politician's ear: 'You do not represent me. This is not a process in which my voice matters. I do not believe you.' — Wendy McElroy
A kite can't really fly free,that's just an expression. In order to soar high in the sky the string of a kite needs to be anchored. If the string breaks the kite drops back to the ground. The kite's freedom depends on it not being as free as he thinks it is. — Simon Napier-Bell
Liberty Of Speech Quotes
The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people. — Louis D. Brandeis
Just as the strength of the Internet is chaos, so the strength of our liberty depends upon the chaos and cacophony of the unfettered speech the First Amendment protects. — Stewart Dalzell
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. — William O. Douglas
Manchester is a city which has witnessed a great many stirring episodes, especially of a political character. Generally speaking, its citizens have been liberal in their sentiments, defenders of free speech and liberty of opinion. — Emmeline Pankhurst
The American constitutions were to liberty, what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech, and practically construct them into syntax — Thomas Paine
Hamas is a terrorist organization dedicated to annihilating the Jewish state. It runs a theocratic totalitarian state in Gaza, with no individual liberty, and no freedom of speech or press. — Dennis Prager
Freedom of thought and freedom of speech in our great institutions are absolutely necessary for the preservation of our country. The moment either is restricted, liberty begins to wither and die. — John Peter Altgeld
When a legislature undertakes to proscribe the exercise of a citizen's constitutional right to free speech, it acts lawlessly; and the citizen can take matters into his own hands and proceed on the basis that such a law is no law at all. — William O. Douglas
The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
The framers of the constitution knew human nature as well as we do. They too had lived in dangerous days; they too knew the suffocating influence of orthodoxy and standardized thought. They weighed the compulsions for restrained speech and thought against the abuses of liberty. They chose liberty. — William O. Douglas
First Amendment Rights Quotes
The civil rights of none, shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext infringed. — James Madison
I'm tired of being considered some kind of criminal or dangerous throwback for no other reason than that I value, exercise, and defend my rights under the first ten Amendments to the United States Constitution. — L. Neil Smith
Freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order. — Robert H. Jackson
Without either the first or second amendment, we would have no liberty; the first allows us to find out what's happening, the second allows us to do something about it! The second will be taken away first, followed by the first and then the rest of our freedoms. — Unknown Author
The Washington Times wrote a story questioning the authenticity of some of the suggestions made about me in Silent Coup. But as a believer in the First Amendment, I believe they have more than a right to air their views. — Bob Woodward
Just as the First and Fourth Amendment secure individual rights of speech and security respectively, the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. This view of the text comports with the all but unanimous understanding of the Founding Fathers. — John Ashcroft
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. — Anthony Kennedy
A lot of people in the adult population have a very limited idea as to why they are Americans, why we have a First Amendment or a Bill of Rights. — Nat Hentoff
It just seems to be a human trait to want to protect the speech of people with whom we agree. For the First Amendment, that is not good enough. So it is really important that we protect First Amendment rights of people no matter what side of the line they are on. — Floyd Abrams
[Asserting] important First Amendment rights ... why should [executions] be the one area that is conducted behind closed doors?... Why shouldn't executions be public? — Phil Donahue
First Amendment Quotes
The First Amendment has the same role in my life as a citizen and a writer as the sun has in our ecosystem. — Michael Chabon
No one understands that the First Amendment is only important if you are going to offend somebody. If you're not going to offend somebody, you don't need protection of the First Amendment. — Larry Flynt
For an American to be patriotic is to be loyal to the principles of our Constitution, and the First Amendment. The truth is that the policies of the government is sometimes in conflict with that. In our country, patriotism should not be defined as obedience to an authority. — Daniel Ellsberg
The First Amendment is not an altar on which we must sacrifice our children, families, and community standards. Obscene material that is not protected by the First Amendment can and must be prohibited. — Orrin Hatch
After reading hundreds of e-mails, I have made MY decision. By pulling my opening Oct 3rd, You (ESPN) stepped on the Toes of The First Amendment Freedom of Speech, so therefore Me, My Song, and All My Rowdy Friends are OUT OF HERE. It's been a great run. — Hank Williams, Jr.
The real object of the First Amendment was not to countenance, much less advance Mohammedanism, or Judaism or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity; but ... to prevent any national ecclesiastical establishment which should give to a hierarchy the exclusive patronage of the national government. — Joseph Story
I don't want to be shut out from the truth. If they ban books, they might as well lock us away from the world. — Rory Edwards
You know why there's a Second Amendment? In case the government fails to follow the first one. — Rush Limbaugh
Whatever one's religion in his private life may be, for the officeholder, nothing takes precedence over his oath to uphold the Constitution and all its parts - including the First Amendment and the strict separation of church and state. — John F. Kennedy
Any time someone carries a picket sign in front of the White House, that is the First Amendment in action — Julian Bond
Freedom Of Speech And Expression Quotes
There's a time and a place for getting a smart mouth. — J. K. Rowling
Freedom of expression is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity, and the mother of truth. — Liu Xiaobo
It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate. — Abe Fortas
Whether it's people walking off 'The View' when Bill O'Reilly makes a statement about radical Islam or Juan Williams being fired for expressing his opinion, over-reaching political correctness is chipping away at the fundamental American freedoms of speech and expression. — Eric Cantor
A bunch of bong-smoking, America-bashing, flag-burning, yoga-posing, incense-burning, dolphin-saving, salmon-eating hypocrites. These are the sensitive, liberal people who are always yelling about people's freedom of speech and expression, unless you happen to say something that pisses them off. — Richard Jeni
In order for the State in the person of school officials to justify prohibition of a particular expression of opinion, it must be able to show that its action was caused by something more than a mere desire to avoid the discomfort and unpleasantness that always accompany an unpopular viewpoint. — Abe Fortas
I'm a big advocate of freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of thought. — Jimmy Wales
Freedom of expression is actually a way for people to know themselves better, and to understand themselves better. Because without it, you become a stranger to yourself. — Lucien Bourjeily
I joined the Labour party because I believed in equality, in freedom of speech and in tolerance, compassion and understanding for people, irrespective of their background and views. In whatever I decide to do in the future I will hold to those principles. — Geoff Hoon
Academic Freedom Quotes
The phrase 'academic freedom' is often used carelessly: here is a work that will allow a more careful conversation about those many crucial issues facing the academy, in which a well-worked out understanding of conceptions of academic freedom is, as its authors show, an essential tool. — Kwame Anthony Appiah
The trailblazers in human, academic, scientific and religious freedom have always been nonconformists. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
The most important aspect of freedom of speech is freedom to learn. All education is a continuous dialogue - questions and answers that pursue every problem on the horizon. That is the essence of academic freedom. — William O. Douglas
Academic freedom really means freedom of inquiry. To be able to probe according to one's own interest, knowledge and conscience is the most important freedom the scholar has, and part of that process is to state its results. — Donald Kennedy
It's a good thing that we're protected by tenure and academic freedom, but we should realize that it creates a risk of getting cut off. Scholars should write, at least sometimes, for the general public. — Martha C. Nussbaum
Can a geology teacher blithely tell his students that the earth is flat, or a European history professor that the Holocaust didn't happen? That's not academic freedom, but dereliction of duty. — Jerry A. Coyne
Build your schools around concepts, not academic subjects: core concepts such as awareness, honesty, responsibility, freedom and diversity in oneness. Teach your children these things and you will have taught them grandly. — Neale Donald Walsch
Freedom of speech is not an academic value. Accuracy of speech is an academic value; completeness of speech is an academic value; relevance of speech is an academic value. Each of these is directly related to the goal of academic inquiry: getting a matter of fact right. — Stanley Fish
In Britain the power of authority was weakened. There was much more individual freedom and there was great academic freedom. — Michael Craig-Martin
Academic freedom is being lost by a great many people who dare to challenge Darwinism. That's a terrifying situation. That's contrary to the principles of science. — Ben Stein
Freedom Of The Press Quotes
The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments. — George Mason
The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. — Hugo Black
Freedom of the Press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose — George Orwell
The Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms. — Samuel Adams
Freedom of the press is not questioned when investigative journalism unearths scandals, But that does not mean that every classified state document should be made available to journalists. — Otto Schily
Freedom of the press is essential to the preservation of a democracy; but there is a difference between freedom and license. Editorialists who tell downright lies in order to advance their own agendas do more to discredit the press than all the censors in the world. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
Freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of person under protection of habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected, these principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. — Thomas Jefferson
Absolute freedom of the press to discuss public questions is a foundation stone of American liberty. — Herbert Hoover
Those who suppress freedom always do so in the name of law and order. — John Lindsay
Civilization is not about more capital accumulation per se; rather, it is about what capital accumulation allows humans to achieve, the flourishing and freedom to seek higher meaning in life when their base needs are met and most pressing dangers averted. — Saifedean Ammous
Our republic and its press will rise and fall together. — Joseph Pulitzer
There are laws to protect the freedom of the press's speech, but none that are worth anything to protect the people from the press — Mark Twain
I get a little nauseated, perhaps, when I hear the phrase 'freedom of the press' used as freely as it is, knowing that a large part of our proprietorial press is not free at all. — Harold Wilson
Whenever there is injustice, there is tension. But in China it is very hard to release your anger unless you burn yourself or you jump from a bridge. In a society where there is no freedom of the press, it is difficult for victims to be noticed. — Ai Weiwei
Freedom of the press, freedom of association, the inviolability of domicile, and all the rest of the rights of man are respected so long as no one tries to use them against the privileged class. On the day they are launched against the privileged they are overthrown. — Peter Kropotkin
The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable. — James Madison
As unbalanced parties of every description can never tolerate a free inquiry of any kind, when employed against themselves, the license, and even the most temperate freedom of the press, soon excite resentment and revenge. — John Adams
Free Expression Quotes
Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child's soul. — Friedrich Frobel
My music is the spiritual expression of what I am — my faith, my knowledge, my being...When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hangups...I want to speak to their souls. — John Coltrane
If you are not personally free to be yourself in that most important of all human activities... the expression of love... then life itself loses its meaning. — Harvey Milk
American style is about confidence, independence, diversity and free expression. — Tommy Hilfiger
A person becomes truly free only when they are able to think and express their own thoughts. — Alexei Navalny
A succulent wild woman is one of any age who feels free to fully express herself in every dimension of her life. — Sark
Trouble looms when monogamy is no longer a free expression of loyalty but a form of enforced compliance. — Esther Perel
The world is your exercise book, the pages on which you do your sums. It is not reality, though you may express reality there if you wish. You are also free to write lies, or nonsense, or to tear the pages. — Richard Bach
Entrepreneurial profit is the expression of the value of what the entrepreneur contributes to production. — Joseph A. Schumpeter
I will continue to express the fact I am for a drug-free sport and always will be. — Marion Jones
I wrote a song about dental floss but did anyone's teeth get cleaner? — Frank Zappa
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. — Winston Churchill
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. Republics and limited monarchies derive their strength and vigor from a popular examination into the action of the magistrates. — Benjamin Franklin
The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. — Hugo Black
Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re really in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of free speech. — Noam Chomsky
The Press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of the government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people. — Hugo Black
Until COVID, I thought that free speech was a protected fundamental right guaranteed to all citizens of the United States of America by the Bill of Rights. Having been assigned core texts like 1984, Brave New World, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, and The Trial and Death of Socrates in fourth and fifth grade as a “gifted and talented” student in the California school system of the time, I believed there was no way anything like what was written in those books could happen here in the USA during the 21st century. — Robert W. Malone
It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own. — Herbert Hoover
The general idea is that we must weigh our freedom of speech against the right of others to not be offended. No! Freedom of speech is precisely meant to protect the most obnoxious, offensive, and disgusting speech. It does not exist to ensure that you only levy beautiful compliments at me. Occasionally being offended is the price that one pays for living in a truly free society. — Gad Saad
Twitter’s product is the global town square. Elon is focused on protecting free speech, transparency, and democracy. Without Starlink, we would have had little sense of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, the transparency of which has had magical powers on people at large. — Cathie Wood
Is there a free speech crisis on college campuses? One can certainly make that argument, but that portrayal is at least as misleading as it is informative. — Bret Weinstein
Laws are like spider's webs: If some poor weak creature comes up against them, it is caught; but a big one can break through and get away. — Solon
For I conclude that the enemy is not lipstick, but guilt itself; that we deserve lipstick, if we want it, AND free speech; we deserve to be sexual AND serious--or whatever we please; we are entitled to wear cowboy boots to our own revolution. — Naomi Wolf
The free market argument for limiting free speech ie build your own platform if you don't like our moderation evaporated as soon as Apple and Google banned Parler from their app stores. There's no opportunity to build an alternative if the OS duopoly prevents it. — David O. Sacks
All Citizens United did was to level the playing field for corporate speech. We now have, I think, the most free and open system we've had in modern times. — Mitch McConnell
Arguing that you don't care about 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. — Edward Snowden
Free speech is meaningless if the commercial cacophony has risen to the point where no one can hear you. — Naomi Klein
Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it. — Mark Twain
Start doing the things you think should be done, and start being what you think society should become. Do you believe in free speech? Then speak freely. Do you love the truth? Then tell it. Do you believe in an open society? Then act in the open. Do you believe in a decent and humane society? Then behave decently and humanely. — Adam Michnik
The virtue of a democratic system with a [constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech] is that it readily enables the people, over time, to be persuaded that what they took for granted is not so, and to change their laws accordingly. — Antonin Scalia
In a free society, people should have the right to criticize a religion; they should have the right to do so, and of course their criticisms are themselves open to criticism; that is the essence of freedom of speech and thought. — Gad Saad
I like the free-speech stuff, the political-correctness stuff. — Milo Yiannopoulos
Use the word 'cybernetics', Norbert, because nobody knows what it means. This will always put you at an advantage in arguments. — Claude Shannon
In Conclusion
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