Best 392 quotes in «freedom of speech quotes» category

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president... is morally treasonable to the American public.

We do have freedom of speech, but if you say the wrong word, it looks like it makes headlines. So everybody has to be very careful.

We don't have the freedom of speech to talk about the weather. We have the first amendment so we can say some very controversial things.

We don't have an Official Secrets Act in the United States, as other countries do. Under the First Amendment, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of association are more important than protecting secrets.

To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.

We don't need to 'control' free speech, we need to control ourselves.

We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at our peril, risk and hazard.

We should not have either a blunt knife or a freedom of speech which is ill-managed.

We have to uphold a free press and freedom of speech - because, in the end, lies and misinformation are no match for the truth.

We need a free media, not just freedom of speech.

We have freedom of speech, but you got to watch what you say.

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.

When one makes a Revolution, one cannot mark time; one must always go forward--or go back

While I've found many of the religious shows I've viewed over the years not to be to my liking, or in line with my own beliefs, I've never considered it my place to exert any greater type of censorship than changing the channel, or better yet - turning off the TV completely.

When another writer in another house is not free, no writer is free.

WikiLeaks will not comply with legally abusive requests from Scientology any more than WikiLeaks has complied with similar demands from Swiss banks, Russian offshore stem-cell centers, former African kleptocrats, or the Pentagon.

Wherever despotism abounds, the sources of public information are the first to be brought under its control. Where ever the cause of liberty is making its way, one of its highest accomplishments is the guarantee of the freedom of the press.

You don't just - you often have to defend the freedoms of people you don't like, you know, whose work you don't like, because freedom of speech is not just for serious people. It's also for trashy people. So, and, unfortunately, this is at the trashy end of the scale.

Without freedom of speech, there is no modern world, just a barbaric one.

Without freedom of speech, I might be in the swamp

A free world doesn't mean a civilized world, for freedom without responsibility leads to more chaos than lack of freedom does.

A liberal will defend to the death your right to agree with her. Disagree with her, and she will call the police.

All liberty required was that the space for discourse itself be protected. Liberty lay in the argument itself, not the resolution of that argument, in the ability to quarrel, even with the most cherished beliefs of others; a free society was not placid but turbulent. The bazaar of conflicting was the place where freedom rang.

Almost every society on this planet has a few human beings who seek to distract attention from what is really going on, often because they have been brainwashed by others.

A lot of bands make two different music videos for their latest songs. A censored version for American TV, and an uncensored version that includes nudity for European music stations. The so-called Land of The Free doesn't seem so free anymore, when you realize that other countries have a lot more freedom.

A nation of underachievers is easier to control than a society that excels.

Any country where there is no freedom of speech is no more than a Kingdom of Animals where only the powerful speaks!

A sacred cow, unexamined, feeds itself and produces a whole lot of bullshit. And nobody wants that, except the people who profit by selling you bullshit. Those are the people who try to tell you that examining or criticizing the sacred cow is taboo.

As a human being you have the right to express yourself. You have the right to journey wherever your mind wanders and to express the thoughts you come up with along the way. You have the right to believe, and to atone, the same way you have the right to love and to hate.

As information and voice amplification become the new symbols of power, those who would assume control of society have moved to hoard voice amplification and control the message received by the public in new ways.

1. Everyone is entitled to their opinion about the things they read (or watch, or listen to, or taste, or whatever). They’re also entitled to express them online. 2. Sometimes those opinions will be ones you don’t like. 3. Sometimes those opinions won’t be very nice. 4. The people expressing those may be (but are not always) assholes. 5. However, if your solution to this “problem” is to vex, annoy, threaten or harrass them, you are almost certainly a bigger asshole. 6. You may also be twelve. 7. You are not responsible for anyone else’s actions or karma, but you are responsible for your own. 8. So leave them alone and go about your own life." [Bad Reviews: I Can Handle Them, and So Should You (Blog post, July 17, 2012)]

A static conformist mind is hardly a creative mind, now a radiating mind, that is something worth gazing into for this is where great ideas leap from. - On Not Being Challenged Enough

Any government's condemnation of terrorism is only credible if it shows itself to be responsive to persistent, reasonable, closely argued, non-violent dissent. And yet, what's happening is just the opposite. The world over, non-violent resistance movements are being crushed and broken. If we do not respect and honour them, by default we privilege those who turn to violent means.

At least we still have freedom of speech," I said. And she said, "That isn't something somebody else gives you. That's something you give yourself.

Because at this time, in this place, Chinese writing exhibits symptoms of a mental disorder.

Censors never go after books unless kids already like them. I don’t even think they know to go after books until they know that children are interested in reading this book, therefore there must be something in it that’s wrong.

Claiming to be a victim gives people perverse authority. Subjective experience becomes key: 'I am a sexual abuse victim. I am allowed to speak on this. You are not because you have never experienced what it is like to be...'. Victim status can buy special privileges and gives the green light to brand opposing views or even mild criticisms as tantamount to hate speech. So councils, who have become chief cheerleaders for policing subjective complaints, define hate speech as including 'any behavior, verbal abuse or insults, offensive leaflets, posters, gestures as perceived by the victim or any other person as being motivated by hostility, prejudice or hatred'. This effectively incites 'victims' to shout offense and expect a clamp-down. Equally chilling, if a victim aggressively accuses you of offense, it is dangerous to argue back, or even to request that they should stop being so hostile, should you be accused of 'tone policing', a new rule that dictates: '[Y]ou can never question the efficacy of anger ... when voiced by a person from a marginalized background'. No wonder people are queueing up to self-identify into any number of victim camps: you can get your voice heard loudly, close down debate and threaten critics.

But but but what is the point of giving persons Freedom of Speech,’ declaimed Butt the Hoopoe, ‘if you then say they must not utilize same? And is not the Power of Speech the greatest Power of all? Then surely it must be exercised to the full?

Danny would have thought it comical if it had come from any other source, on any other day, in any other country. But Curtis had come to the table with something they'd never expected, something they would have thought outmoded and outlived in the modern age: a kind of fundamental righteousness that only the fundamental possessed. Unfettered by doubt, it achieved the appearance of moral intelligence and a resolute consciousness. The terrible thing was how small it made you feel, how weaponless. How could you fight righteous rage if the only arms you bore were logic and sanity?

Don't exercise your freedom of speech until you have exercised your freedom of thought.

Because Freedom is the most important thing on life, let me Be.

Criminalizing offensive speech is a far greater and essential danger to freedom than terrorism is. Anybody who wants to criminalize speech that they find offensive differs from the terrorists only in degree, not in kind.

El cambio es posible, pero debe nacer de las leyes, de su cumplimiento, para que conceptos tan simples como el bien y el mal, como premio y castigo —que actualmente están desdibujados—, vuelvan a cobrar vigencia. Entonces empezaremos a ver el cambio. Entonces las personas del mundo volverán a confiar en sus instituciones, en la democracia, en la vida misma. Y los inmigrantes volverán a casa, y los que murieron por tanta injusticia descansarán en paz, y nada habrá sido, al final, en vano: Ni nuestras luchas, ni nuestras suplicas, ni nuestra fe en el cambio.

Everybody can do something. Anyone can do anything, but, it takes an understanding of real freedom to know do’s and don’ts and the essence of do’s and don’ts’. Nobility knows rules, nobility understands rules, and nobility recognizes the real reasons of staying within the border lines of rules that uphold dignity as a sacred responsibility. Nobility least do things anyhow, anywhere and anytime.

Don’t think it is enough to attend meetings and sit there like a lump…. It is better to address envelopes than to attend foolish meetings. It is better to study than act too quickly; but it is best to be ready to act intelligently when the appropriate opportunity arises… Speak up. Learn to talk clearly and forcefully in public. Speak simply and not too long at a time, without over-emotion, always from sound preparation and knowledge. Be a nuisance where it counts, but don’t be a bore at any time… Do your part to inform and stimulate the public to join your action…. Be depressed, discouraged and disappointed at failure and the disheartening effects of ignorance, greed, corruption and bad politics — but never give up.

Everybody can do something. Anyone can do anything, but, it takes an understanding of real freedom to know do’s and don’ts and the essence of do’s and don’ts’. Nobility knows rules, nobility understands rules, and nobility recognizes the real reasons for staying within the border lines of rules that uphold dignity as a sacred responsibility. Nobility least do things anyhow, anywhere and anytime.

Every man — in the development of his own personality — has the right to form his own beliefs and opinions. Hence, suppression of belief, opinion and expression is an affront to the dignity of man, a negation of man’s essential nature." [Toward a General Theory of the First Amendment (1963)]

Ever since the Enlightenment era in the 17th and 18th Centuries—which, among other things, gave birth to the U.S. Constitution and the de facto motto E Pluribus Unum (out of the many, one)—interfaith tolerance has been sown into the fabric of Western society. The rules of one religion are not made into law for all citizens because of a simple social agreement. For you to believe what you want, you must allow me to do the same, even if we disagree.

Every word serves a purpose. It conveys an idea. And the idea behind words like feces, stool, or poop is exactly the same as behind the word shit. They all conjure up the same mental image in your head. So why are stool and poop "good" words, and shit is a "bad" word? Who decided that, and why am I bound by that decision?

Freedom of speech is a fallacy, it is not absolute. It can be hailed absolute only if the person possessing it, has the conscience to distinguish the right from the wrong, justice from injustice, acceptance from discrimination.