An aphorism is nothing else but the slightest
form of writing raised to the highest level of expressive communication. Carl William Brown



60,000 QUOTES SPIDER
 


QUOTES AND APHORISMS ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH

 

 

A people which is able to say everything becomes able to do everything.

 

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821, French general, emperor)

 

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

 

Noam Chomsky (1928-, American linguist, political activist)

 

We who officially value freedom of speech above life itself seem to have nothing to talk about but the weather.

 

Barbara Ehrenreich (1941-, American author, columnist)

 

We are willing enough to praise freedom when she is safely tucked away in the past and cannot be a nuisance. In the present, amidst dangers whose outcome we cannot foresee, we get nervous about her, and admit censorship.

 

Edward M. Forster (1879-1970, British novelist, essayist)

 

The primacy of the word, basis of the human psyche, that has in our age been used for mind-bending persuasion and brain-washing pulp, disgraced by Gobbles and debased by advertising copy, remains a force for freedom that flies out between all bars.

 

Nadine Gordimer (1923-, South African author)

 

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.

 

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784, British author)

 

We hear about constitutional rights, free speech and the free press. Every time I hear those words I say to myself, "That man is a Red, that man is a Communist." You never heard a real American talk in that manner.

 

Frank Hague

 

The very aim and end of our institutions is just this: that we may thing what we like and say what we think.

 

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894, American author, wit, poet)

 

The freedom of the press works in such a way that there is not much freedom from it.

 

Grace Patricia Kelly (1929-1982, American actress and Princess of Monaco)

 

How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.

 

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855, Danish philosopher, writer)

 

People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.

 

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855, Danish philosopher, writer)

 

When one makes a Revolution, one cannot mark time; one must always go forward -- or go back. He who now talks about the "freedom of the press" goes backward, and halts our headlong course towards Socialism.

 

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870-1924, Russian revolutionary leader)

 

At no time is freedom of speech more precious than when a man hits his thumb with a hammer.

 

Marshall Lumsden

 

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.

 

John Milton (1608-1674, British poet)

 

The only way to make sure people you agree with can speak is to support the rights of people you don't agree with.

 

Eleanor Holmes Norton

 

Marks on paper are free -- free speech -- press -- pictures all go together I suppose.

 

Georgia O'Keeffe (American painter)

 

Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself.

 

Salman Rushdie (1948-, Indian-born British author)

 

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

 

Francois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1778, French historian, writer)

 

The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum.

 

Adlai E. Stevenson (1900-1965, American lawyer, politician)

 

The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions.

 

Adlai E. Stevenson (1900-1965, American lawyer, politician)

 

In America the majority raises formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion; within these barriers an author may write what he pleases, but woe to him if he goes beyond them.

 

Alexis De Tocqueville (1805-1859, French social philosopher)

 

If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.

 

George Washington (1732-1799, American President (1st))

 

Every dogma must have its day.

 

Carolyn Wells (1870-1942, American author)

 

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