Top 100 Freedom To Speech Quotes
#1. Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to speech and action.
Mary Baker Eddy
#2. 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.
Bill Hicks
#3. 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
#4. Nobody should have the right to eavesdrop, or you become a totalitarian state - the kind of state I escaped as a kid to come to this country where you have democracy and freedom of speech.
Jan Koum
#5. If large numbers of people believe in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it. But if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them.
[Freedom of the Park, Tribune, 7 December 1945]
George Orwell
#6. Corporations have at different times been so far unable to distinguish freedom of speech from freedom of lying that their freedom has to be curbed.
Carl L. Becker
#7. I wish there is a world where any one can know the truth and speak there mind with freedom without having to fear for their lives (Rinko, Basara, Vol. 13)
Yumi Tamura
#8. Words cannot only be made ... But made to have a meaning, free the tongue and continue your speech.
Michael Bassey Johnson
#9. Democracy, to maintain itself, must repeatedly conquer every cell and corner of the nation. How many of our public institutions and private businesses, our schools, hospitals, and domestic hearths are in reality little fascist states where freedom of speech is more rigorously excluded than vermin?
Jacques Barzun
#10. Freedom is the freedom to say two plus two equals four.
George Orwell
#11. 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
#12. I feel like freedom of speech is one of the great things in this country and the freedom to do what you feel is right.
Taya Kyle
#13. 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
#14. My desire to curtail undue freedom of speech extends only to such public areas as restaurants, airports, streets, hotel lobbies, parks, and department stores. Verbal exchanges between consenting adults in private are as of little interest to me as they probably are to them.
Fran Lebowitz
#15. Threats to freedom of speech, writing and action, though often trivial in isolation, are cumulative in their effect and, unless checked, lead to a general disrespect for the rights of the citizen.
George Orwell
#16. Exploring and understanding the Net is an ongoing process. Cyberspace never sits still; it evolves as fast as society itself. Only if we fight to preserve our freedom of speech on the Net will we ensure our ability to keep up with both the Net and society.
Mike Godwin
#17. A vigorous democracy a democracy in which there are freedom from want, freedom from fear, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech would never succumb to communism or any other ism.
Helen Gahagan Douglas
#18. Most people do not really want others to have freedom of speech, they just want others to be given the freedom to say want they want to hear.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
#19. The law is agnostic about truth. It's very skeptical of ultimate truth. That's why freedom of speech permits lies to be told.
Alan Dershowitz
#20. The time has now come to amend the Constitution to restore freedom of speech for America's people of faith.
Ralph E. Reed Jr.
#21. That's the miracle of America. Freedom to believe means the freedom to believe the wrong thing, after all. Just as freedom of speech gives you the right to stay silent." The
Neil Gaiman
#22. But don't I have any freedom of speech?"
"In your own house. Not in mine."
"Don't I have a right to my own ideas?"
"At your own expense. Not at mine."
"Don't you tolerate any differences of opinion?"
"Not when I'm paying the bills.
Ayn Rand
#23. The sheriff listened uneasily to a sound, very uncommon at elections, of the populace expressing an opinion contrary to that of the lord of the soil.
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
#24. when you disobey the rule, you sell your freedom. You cripple your real you. The daily direction of your life is restricted and directed by the rule and the ruling
Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
#25. Freedom of speech is not only the right to say as you please, it is also the right to have what you say contested, and where it does not accord with reason - refuted, or with sense - ridiculed.
David Joseph Cribbin
#26. The dictator says "You are allowed to think as you want" but never write it down or talk about it. If you cross these borders we cannot guarantee your security
Bangambiki Habyarimana
#27. Journalists justify their treachery in various ways according to their temperaments. The more pompous talk about freedom of speech and "the public's right to know"; the least talented talk about Art; the seemliest murmur about earning a living.
Janet Malcolm
#28. My own opinion is enough for me, and I claim the right to have it defended against any consensus, any majority, anywhere, any place, any time. And anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, get in line, and kiss my ass.
Christopher Hitchens
#29. Freedom of speech is one of the greatest American liberties, and I hope this pardon serves as a reminder of the precious freedoms we are fighting to preserve as we continue to wage the war on terror.
George Pataki
#30. How the press, for example, loves to brag to its victims - its readers - about its freedom. Yes, the press may be free to lie and distort and suppress and deceive and malign, but is it free to tell the truth?
Willis Carto
#31. This morning I woke up, how blessed I am
Eyes to see, a voice to speak
Words to read and love to feel?
If this isn't something to be thankful for, I'm not sure what is.
Nikki Rowe
#32. And what little she allowed herself to say was said in a strained tone, in which her ingrained timidity paralysed her tendency to freedom and audacity of speech.
Marcel Proust
#33. Free speech means the right to shout 'theatre' in a crowded fire.
Abbie Hoffman
#34. 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
#35. Give me liberty or give me death.
[From a speech given at Saint John's Church in Richmond, Virginia on March 23, 1775 to the Virginia House of Burgesses; as first published in print in 1817 in William Wirt's Life and Character of Patrick Henry.]
Patrick Henry
#36. No one has the right to live without being shocked.
Philip Pullman
#37. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
U.S. Congress
#38. I prefer a little free speech to no free speech at all; but how many have free speech or the chance or the mind for it; and is not free speech here as elsewhere clamped down on in ratio of its freedom and danger?
James Agee
#39. Because Freedom is the most important thing on life, let me Be.
John Steinbeck
#41. Abuses of the freedom of speech ought to be repressed, but to whom are we to commit the power of doing it?
Benjamin Franklin
#43. Our job isn't to defend freedom of speech, but without freedom of speech we are dead. We can't live in a country without freedom of speech. I prefer to die than live like a rat.
Charb
#44. You can't pick and choose which types of freedom you want to defend. You must defend all of it or be against all of it.
Scott Howard Phillips
#45. I am sure that as soon as speech was invented, efforts to suppress and control it began, and that process of suppression continues unabated.
Gilbert S. Merritt Jr.
#46. It is not so much freedom of speech but the right to truth that great men protect.
Criss Jami
#47. A nice, easy place for freedom of speech to be eroded is comics, because comics are a natural target whenever an election comes up.
Neil Gaiman
#48. Sunglasses are more useful to a blind man than freedom of speech is to a man who does not think for himself.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
#49. Not slaves," said Halyard, chuckling patronizingly. "Citizens, employed by government. They have same rights as other citizens - free speech, freedom of worship, the right to vote. Before the war, they worked in the Ilium Works, controlling machines, but now machines control themselves much better.
Anonymous
#50. Napoleon is great because he rose superior to the Revolution, suppressed its abuses, preserved all that was good in it - equality of citizenship and freedom of speech and of the press - and only for that reason did he obtain power.
Leo Tolstoy
#51. I mean there's enormous pressures to harmonize freedom of speech legislation and transparency legislation around the world - within the E.U., between China and the United States. Which way is it going to go? It's hard to see.
Julian Assange
#52. The principle of free speech is no new doctrine born of the Constitution of the United States. It is a heritage of English-speaking peoples, which has been won by incalculable sacrifice, and which they must preserve so long as they hope to live as free men.
Robert M. La Follette, Sr.
#53. 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.
Judy Blume
#54. Everyone is by absolute natural right the master of his own thoughts, and thus utter failure will attend any attempt in a commonwealth to force men to speak only as prescribed by the sovereign despite their different and opposing opinions.
Baruch Spinoza
#55. Freedom of speech means nothing to a people who are too weak in their convictions to speak out against the evil that is eating at the heart of the nation like a cancer.
Billy Graham
#56. I forget, is freedom of speech when it's legal to say what you want or is it when it has no consequences for some reason?
Eugene Mirman
#57. Feminists often pretend to be angry and offended in order to win debates or, I should say, prevent debates from ever happening. If you can act angry and offended, especially on a college campus, you can shut down the other side using a speech code.
Mike Adams
#58. It is quite unlawful to demand, defend, or to grant unconditional freedom of thought, or speech, of writing or worship, as if these were so many rights given by nature to man.
Pope Leo XIII
#59. My view is that good community management is like having good municipal government: You should be able to have dissenting opinions and so on, freedom of speech, but your grandmother should also be able to walk down the street at night without having to worry about getting mugged.
Jimmy Wales
#60. If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.
George Washington
#61. America's greatest contribution to the world is its concept of democracy, its concept of freedom, freedom of action, freedom of speech, and freedom of thought.
Benazir Bhutto
#62. The freedom of speech of private individuals includes the right to not agree, not to listen, and not to finance one's own antagonists.
Ayn Rand
#63. Yes, writers are writing in all corners of the world. Yes they are writing in countries rich and poor. Yes, they are writing despite threats to their freedom of speech or even to their very lives. . . . everywhere on earth writers were writing in their own language.
Minae Mizumura
#64. Do we really want the FCC to conduct investigations and issue warnings to radio talk show hosts nationwide who simply discuss the important issues of our time? The Constitution says 'freedom of speech,' not 'freedom of government-approved fair speech in rationed amounts.'
Tim Walberg
#65. A free society is one where it's safe to be unpopular, but then, freedom of speech also carries with it the freedom not to listen!
Ashwin Sanghi
#66. It's not about contraception. It's about economic liberty, it's about freedom of speech, it's about freedom of religion, it's about government control of your lives and it's got to stop!
Rick Santorum
#67. I definitely didn't fit in perfectly to the school system. I was raised with such freedom of speech and thinking.
Julie Delpy
#68. Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight.
Stephen Chbosky
#69. 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
#70. As politicians we have to make very difficult decisions and one ... is when freedom of speech actually insults public safety.
Tulip Siddiq
#71. Dr. King's famous 'I Have a Dream' speech was delivered at 'The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,' a call to justice beyond the traditional civil rights movement's focus.
Charles B. Rangel
#72. We are not going to always agree with each other, but we should have the dignity to always respect each other's freedom of speech and of choice. Democracy is practiced when we have respect for human rights.
Ellen J. Barrier
#73. Natural isn't the same as right. Normal isn't the same as moral. Everyone deserves a say in what happens to the world.
Audrey Greathouse
#74. Freedom of speech isn't something you can mess with with journalists. You try to silence them, they'll shout even louder.
Cecelia Ahern
#75. In our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either.
Mark Twain
#76. Beware! Freedom of speech also includes the freedom to be misunderstood.
Ashleigh Brilliant
#77. Unfortunately, the media, which are not at all reluctant to act in their own self-interest, have succeeded in equating reform in the public mind with further restrictions on just about everyone else's freedom of political speech.
James L. Buckley
#78. Freedom of speech and freedom of action are meaningless without freedom to think. And there is no freedom of thought without doubt.
Bergen Evans
#79. Our spirit is back, but we haven't reinstitutional ized it. We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom
freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs protection.
Ronald Reagan
#80. At least in America, you have freedom of speech, which is a good thing. It's just a question of whether you're allowed to use it on 'Fox News'.
Eric Idle
#81. No man owns me. All man can do is practice the timeless, criminal art of threatening to separate my soul from her physical host.
Tiffany Madison
#82. Much of my work strikes me as pretty unified: as a lawyer, working in several areas, I have thought about how to promote freedom of speech broadly for everyone.
Marvin Ammori
#83. New Rule: President Bush must stop acting like WE'RE the idiots. He gives speech after speech, and the theme is always the same; 'What part of freedom don't you get, you morons?'. I'll answer that for you Mr. President. The part where you give it to people by blowing them up.
Bill Maher
#84. Questioning our government's actions does not violate the principles of liberty, equality, and freedom of speech; it exercises them, and by exercise we grow stronger. I have read enough of Thomas Jefferson to feel sure
Barbara Kingsolver
#85. The freedom to make a fortune on the stock exchange has been made to sound more alluring than freedom of speech.
John Mortimer
#86. I can't imagine why a media company views a law preventing the commission of hate speech as a restriction on media freedom, but it is probably similar to how some religious folk view hate speech as being essential to religious freedom.
Christina Engela
#87. i believe in the freedom of state where every people have to right develop their culture and maintain the democracy while two things are very essential justice and equality - Long Live Pakistan and Happy Independence Day
Avinash Advani
#88. All speech should be presumed to be protected by the Constitution, and a heavy burden should be placed on those who would censor to demonstrate with relative certainty that the speech at issue, if not censored, would lead to irremediable and immediate serious harm.
Alan Dershowitz
#89. 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
#90. We should silence anyone who opposes the right to freedom of speech.
Boyle Roche
#91. After all, if freedom of speech means anything, it means a willingness to stand and let people say things with which we disagree, and which do weary us considerably.
Zechariah Chafee
#92. There are tensions abroad where people don't understand our attachment to the freedom of speech, we've seen the protests, and I would say that in France all beliefs are respected.
Francois Hollande
#93. In so far as it takes effect at all, pacifist propaganda can only be effective against those countries where a certain amount of freedom of speech is still permitted; in other words it is helpful to totalitarianism.
George Orwell
#94. Of what use is freedom of speech to those who fear to offend?
Roger Ebert
#95. The people shall not be restrained from peacefully assembling and consulting for their common good, nor from applying to the legislature by petitions, or remonstrances for redress of their grievances.
James Madison
#96. You can't be selective about freedom of speech. If you say you believe in freedom of speech you have to acknowledge the people whose views you disagree with, people whose views you may detest, nevertheless have the right to freedom of speech.
George Brandis
#97. freedom of speech becomes mere license when it goes so far as to criticize the Army, differ with the D.A.R., and advocate the rights of the Mob.
Sinclair Lewis
#98. Music is an opportunity to say every single thing that you want to say. People will pore over whatever you say and however you say it and, for me, it represents complete freedom of speech.
Zachary Cole Smith
#99. It should be clear by now that my focus here is not freedom of speech or the press. This freedom is all too often an exaggeration. At the very least, blind references to freedom of speech or the press serve as a distraction from the critical examination of other communications policies.
Mark Lloyd
#100. Freedom of speech is, to all Americans, as oxygen is to the human condition. It is a right that has been irreversibly programmed into our hard drive. We are free to speak our minds. An artist's right to express him or herself as best suits their art, is the artist's prerogative and it is guaranteed.
John C. McGinley
