QUOTES ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH
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Freedom of speech is of no use to a man who has nothing to say and freedom of worship is of no use to a man who has lost his God.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, speech, Nov. 2, 1940
Ideas about the scope and meaning of freedom of speech do expand and contract with the times. At the moment, we live in an age that is very permissive, both legally and socially, on a wide range of subjects from Karl Marx to kinky sex. This has not always been the case. Things that even children freely see and read and hear today -- writings, pictures, words -- would have been banned as just plain obscene, even for adults, as recently as the middle of the twentieth century.
LAWRENCE MEIR FRIEDMAN, American Law in the 20th Century
The worst way to defend our freedom is to let our leaders start taking away our freedoms! It is exactly during times like these [a national crisis] that we need more freedom of speech, a strong and critical press, and a citizenry that is not afraid to stand up and say that the emperor has no clothes.
MICHAEL MOORE, Stupid White Men
Freedom of speech is useless without freedom of thought.
SPIRO AGNEW, speech, Dec. 3, 1969
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, The New England Courant, Jul. 9, 1722
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.
CALVIN COOLIDGE, speech, Jan. 17, 1925
Freedom of speech is a guiding rule, one of the foundations of democracy, but at the same time, freedom does not imply anarchy, and the right to exercise free expression does not include the right to do unjustified harm to others.
RAPHAEL COHEN-ALMAGOR, Speech, Media and Ethics
We should not have either a blunt knife or a freedom of speech which is ill-managed.
When a man says that he is Jesus or Napoleon, or that the Martians are after him, or claims something else that seems outrageous to common sense, he is labeled psychotic and locked up in a madhouse. Freedom of speech is only for normal people.
THOMAS SZASZ, The Second Sin
Should freedom of speech include the freedom to tell lies? Who decides what is true and what is a lie? Should the young and impressionable be exposed to propaganda deliberately designed to make them hate others? If we deny the deniers the right to spread their venom, are we then putting our own right to free speech at risk? At which point does hate speech so directly provoke violence that it should be banned?
TED GOTTFRIED, Deniers of the Holocaust
Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself.
SALMAN RUSHDIE, London Guardian, Nov. 8, 1990
For if Men are to be precluded from offering their Sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences, that can invite the consideration of Mankind, reason is of no use to us; the freedom of Speech may be taken away, and, dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, address to the officers of the army, Mar. 15, 1783
Freedom of speech gives you the right to stay silent.
NEIL GAIMAN, American Gods
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