Quotes About Freedom Of Speech And Expression

#1. 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

#2. I keep telling myself to calm down, to take less of an interest in things and not to get so excited, but I still care a lot about liberty, freedom of speech and expression, and fairness in journalism.

Kate Adie

#3. [I]n my own case at least I feel my professional need for freedom of speech and expression prejudices me toward a government whose constitution guarantees it.

John Updike

#4. Any government which fears freedom of speech and expression, should fear the internet more.

Robert Black

#5. By limiting or denying freedom of speech and expression, we take away a lot of potential. We take away thoughts and ideas before they even have the opportunity to hatch. We build a world around negatives - you can't say, think, or do this or that.

Jill McCorkle

#6. 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

#7. Self-expression has to come out pure. It has to have an environment waiting for it. It has to have a garden it can plant itself in.

Melinda Gebbie

#8. Here's a nation, one of the founding pillars was freedom of speech and freedom of expression. And yet, we have imposed upon people restrictions on what they can say, on what they can think. And the media is the largest proponent of this, crucifying people who say things really quite innocently.

Ben Carson

#9. A freedom given up is not so easily regained.

Rivera Sun

#10. What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.

Salman Rushdie

#11. No man voluntarily expresses his opinion without some intent to make a difference, and even if he does, he shouldn't.

Criss Jami

#12. The great thing about improvisation is that it allows us to establish an uncensored form of theater. Freedom of speech is absolutely inherent to artistic expression.

Lucien Bourjeily

#13. I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an ass of yourself.

Oscar Wilde

#14. When there is liberty, you expect a higher degree of freedom and not human rights abuse.

Auliq Ice

#15. The censor is always quick to justify his function in terms that are protective of society. But the First Amendment, written in terms that are absolute, deprives the States of any power to pass on the value, the propriety, or the morality of a particular expression.

William O. Douglas

#16. It is there, where they burn books, that eventually they burn people.

Heinrich Heine

#17. Men are different; sheep are all alike.

Raheel Farooq

#18. 2. We must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which through Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and the English common law find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence.

Winston S. Churchill

#19. The free expression of the hopes and aspirations of a people is the greatest and only safety in a sane society.

Emma Goldman

#20. Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one.

A.J. Liebling

#21. The more they erect barriers, the more we feel inclined to pull them down. If the barriers are too high, we will go under them. If the barriers are too deep, we will learn to fly. If your heart is set on freedom, no cage will ever keep you in.

Chloe Thurlow

#22. It seemed that freedom of expression had run amuck, or had run as far as the Government would allow it to go.

Kenneth Eade

#23. The only weapon that we have in our hands this evening is the weapon of protest. That's all.

Martin Luther King Jr.

#24. 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)]

Thomas I. Emerson

#25. But please know, whether you believe campaign contributions are speech or property, that I learned to love very dearly the right of free expression when I lived without that freedom for a while a long time ago.

John McCain

#26. 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

#27.

[Blog post, March 10, 2014]

K.J. Charles

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

Tim Fargo

#29. 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

#30. 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

#31. I'm for the freedom of expression, given that it will be under strict control.

Alan Bennett

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

John Steinbeck

#33. 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

#34. If we do not believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we do not believe in it at all.

Noam Chomsky

#35. Please wake me when I'm free
I cannot bear captivity
4 I would rather be stricken blind
Than 2 live without expression of mind

Tupac Shakur

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

Mehmet Murat Ildan

#37. Somehow freedom for religious expression has become freedom from religious expression.

Dinesh D'Souza

#38. Not enough people know or understand just how little freedom we have left.

Korban Blake

#39. Lose your freedom, and become a slave by borrowing.

Auliq Ice

#40. What is the best thing that happens if we refuse to abide by the dictates of political correctness? I believe that we could return to a nation that truly cherishes freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

Ben Carson

#41. Freedom of expression is actually a way for people to know themselves better, and to understand themselves better. Because without it, you become a stranger to yourself.

Lucien Bourjeily

#42. The pressure to conform to 'politically correct' speech is primarily a pressure not to use certain expressions. But when our freedom to use certain expressions is taken away, then our ability to think in certain ways is also curtailed.

Wayne Grudem

#43. I'm a big advocate of freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of thought.

Jimmy Wales

#44. Contrary to popular misconception, Islam does not mean peace but rather means submission to the commands of Allah alone. Therefore, Muslims do not believe in the concept of freedom of expression, as their speech and actions are determined by divine revelation and not based on people's desires.

Anjem Choudary

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

Robyn Heirtzler