Translate

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Free speech quotes

The posting of quotes by human authors does not constitute agreement with either the quotes or their sources.

"Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it." -- Thomas Jefferson, Inaugural Address.

"Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?" -- John Milton

"A man may be a heretic in the truth, and if he believe things only because his pastor says so, or the assembly so determines, without knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy." -- John Milton

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

"It is not possible for man to sever the wheat from the tares, the good fish from the other fry; that must be the Angels' ministry at the end of mortal things. Yet if all cannot be of one mind — as who looks they should be? — this doubtless is more wholesome, more prudent, and more Christian, that many be tolerated, rather than all compelled." -- John Milton

"If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other, it is the principle of free thought—not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate." -- Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. in United States v. Schwimmer.

"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." -- Soren Kierkegaard

"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

"It is easy to believe in freedom of speech for those with whom we agree." -- Leo McKern

"I have the right to write whatever I want. And it's equaled by another right just as powerful: the right not to read it. Freedom of speech includes the freedom to offend people." -- Brad Thor

No comments: