Top 100 Right To Speech Quotes
#1. 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
#2. Free speech is the cornerstone to every right we have.
Mark Thomas
#3. The fact that we're protected under that Constitution in exercising the right of free speech, it's a wonderful thing. You've got to come from somewhere else to realize how valuable it is.
Pat Oliphant
#4. The most attractive sentences are, perhaps, not the wisest, but the surest and roundest. They are spoken firmly and conclusively,as if the speaker had a right to know what he says, and if not wise, they have at least been well learned.
Henry David Thoreau
#5. I try to make the voice in my head come out onto the page. I try to make it much more conversational than other writing. I speak everything, so if something sounds right I write it. It's more about sound and the rhythm of speech than written language.
James Frey
#6. 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
#7. Aggressive civil disobedience should be confined to a vindication of the right of free speech and free association.
Mahatma Gandhi
#8. Just as the First and Fourth Amendment secure individual rights of speech and security respectively, the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. This view of the text comports with the all but unanimous understanding of the Founding Fathers.
John Ashcroft
#9. The virtue of a democratic system with a [constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech] is that it readily enables the people, over time, to be persuaded that what they took for granted is not so, and to change their laws accordingly.
Antonin Scalia
#10. You who are journalists, writers, citizens, you have the right and duty to say to those you have elected that they must practice mindfulness, calm and deep listening, and loving speech. This is universal thing, taught by all religions.
Nhat Hanh
#11. The right to free speech is more important than the content of the speech.
Voltaire
#12. The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#13. We civilians defend our own right to free speech. The military in Iraq does not defend our right to free speech.
Medea Benjamin
#14. 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
#15. 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
#16. I got some real rough dental work done not long ago, and my mouth's still numb right here [points to the left side of his chin]. So it kind of messes with my speech a little bit, so don't y'all think that I took too many cos I haven't.
Roy Jones Jr.
#17. This Ariyan Eightfold Path, that is to say: Right view, right aim, right speech, right action, right living, right effort, right mindfulness, right contemplation.
Gautama Buddha
#18. You know what it's like - you see someone on the train screaming awful, racist things and think, 'How can I protect this person's right to free speech?
Tony Abbott
#19. Swedish democracy is based on a single premise: the Right to Free Speech (R.F.S.).
Stieg Larsson
#20. 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
#21. Aside from the collective gain that comes from that free interchange of ideas, there is a direct personal value for the individual concerned. Each of us should have the right to speak his thoughts and to hear the thoughts of others ...
Charles Rembar
#22. 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
#23. 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
#24. The right to free speech is important but it isn't as important as 'we're all human beings together, let's find solutions together.'
Russell Brand
#25. Free speech means the right to shout 'theatre' in a crowded fire.
Abbie Hoffman
#26. I have a certain manner of speech that is unique to me. I tried once to have my staff tweet for me, and it was a disaster! People knew right away that it wasn't me.
Iman
#27. To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.
G.K. Chesterton
#28. I think, with never-ending gratitude, that the young women of today do not and can never know at what price their right to free speech and to speak at all in public has been earned.
Lucy Stone
#29. No one has the right to live without being shocked.
Philip Pullman
#30. 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
#31. It is not so much freedom of speech but the right to truth that great men protect.
Criss Jami
#32. 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
#33. I would not wish to live in a world where I could not express my honest opinions. Men who deny to others the right of speech are not fit to live with honest men.
Robert G. Ingersoll
#35. I'm Valerie Rye,' she said, savoring the words. 'It's all right for you to talk to me.
Octavia E. Butler
#36. 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
#37. 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
#38. If our hard-earned liberty, our desire to be irreverent of the old and to question the new, can be reduced to one, basic and indispensable right, it must be the right to free speech.
Maajid Nawaz
#39. Our First Amendment expresses a far different calculus for regulating speech than for regulating nonexpressive conduct and that is as it should be. The right to swing your fist should end at the tip of my nose, but your right to express your ideas should not necessarily end at the lobes of my ears.
Alan Dershowitz
#40. The Supreme Court decided that corporations are people and they have the right of free speech and the right without disclosure - all of this is through the Citizens United Supreme Court decision - to put as much money as they want into campaigns all over the country.
Bernie Sanders
#41. Of course you will insist on modesty in the children, and respect to their teachers, but if the boy stops you in your speech, cries out that you are wrong and sets you right, hug him!
Ralph Waldo Emerson
#42. 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
#43. [W]hen you practise right meditation, you 'cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words and following speech, and learn the backward step that turns your light inwardly to illuminate your self.
Steve Hagen
#44. Eminem's 'Lose Yourself' is my go-to song to pump myself up if I'm having a tough time or if I get really nervous right before a speech.
Sara Blakely
#45. Well, you had better speak more slowly so we can understand. We mean to do right by you, but you've got to know your place at all times. All right, now, go on with your speech.
Ralph Ellison
#46. When the public's right to know is threatened, and when the rights of free speech and free press are at risk, all of the other liberties we hold dear are endangered.
Christopher Dodd
#47. 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
#48. One thinking it is right to speak all things, whether the word is fit for speech or unutterable.
Sophocles
#49. We should silence anyone who opposes the right to freedom of speech.
Boyle Roche
#50. The right to free speech and the unrealistic expectation to never be offended can not coexist.
Philip Sharp
#51. There are some of us who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese or wild flowers is a right as inalienable as free speech.
Aldo Leopold
#52. Free speech is my right to say what you don't want to hear.
George Orwell
#53. 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
#54. 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
#55. There is no right not to be offended.
Mick Hume
#56. What I learned about stammering was that, when as a young child you lose the confidence of anyone who wants to listen to you, you lose confidence in your voice and the right to speech. And a lot of the therapy was saying, 'You have a right to be heard.'
Tom Hooper
#57. I'm as keen as the next person to preserve the right to free speech.
David Blunkett
#58. The First Amendment does not guarantee the press a constitutional right of special access to information not available to the general public, nor does it cloak the inmate with special rights of freedom of speech.
Pete Wilson
#59. Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.
Edward Snowden
#60. I had my first amendment rights removed by a USA judge for a video that I recorded in the public sidewalk. The right to free speech and freedom of the press only partially exists in the USA.
Steven Magee
#61. Right. And our first job is to teach her to give a speech on the Grand Balcony in three days."
"That does not sound too difficult. Has she done much public speaking?"
Amilia forced a smile. "A week ago she said the word no.
Michael J. Sullivan
#62. A woman who utters such depressing and disgusting sounds has no right to be anywhere - no right to live. Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift to articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton ...
George Bernard Shaw
#63. That I have the right to express myself freely at all times in all circumstances entails the idea that free speech is a 'basic human right' possessed by each individual, and, as such, trumps the interests of the society or group, including my neighbour.
Tom Stoppard
#64. Making others happy, through kindness of speech and sincerity of right advice, is a sign of true greatness. To hurt another soul by sarcastic words, looks, or suggestions, is despicable.
Paramahansa Yogananda
#65. The political function of 'the right of free speech' is to protect dissenters and unpopular minorities from forcible suppression - not to guarantee them the support, advantages, and rewards of a popularity they have not gained.
Ayn Rand
#66. We're right to say that a culture that can't tolerate free speech is ... there are a wide range of positive human experiences that are not available in that culture. And we're right to want those experiences.
Sam Harris
#67. I have only to speak for myself; to speak for freedom for myself; to determine for freedom for myself; and in doing so, I speak and determine for the freedom of every slave on every plantation, and for the fugitives on my right hand.
Charles Lenox Remond
#68. Striking a balance in favor of individual rights has always been the right decision for us and that it remains so even when technology gives us new ways to exercise those rights. Individual liberty has never weakened us; freedom of speech, enhanced by the Net, will only make us stronger.
Mike Godwin
#69. Does freedom of speech give the right to offend?
Maajid Nawaz
#70. No matter what the legislature may say, a man has the right to make his speech, print his handbill, compose his newspaper, and deliver his sermon without asking anyone's permission. The contrary suggestion is abhorrent to our traditions.
William O. Douglas
#71. And a democracy can't exist without free speech and the right to assemble. And that's what Americans tend to forget. And they're born into a culture where they take all of their freedoms for granted.
Larry Flynt
#72. Speeches and me don't get along sometimes. It is kind of like putting a tie too tight on my neck. I'm going to do whatever feels right.
Rickey Henderson
#73. Free speech is the bedrock of liberty and a free society. And yes, it includes the right to blaspheme and offend.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
#74. Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to speech and action.
Mary Baker Eddy
#75. I have been raised to believe in freedom of thought and speech. If a minority wishes to accept that position it's their right. What I fear is that this minority may seem to be larger than it truly is. What is strange is that there are still people who believe the world is not a globe.
Richard Leakey
#76. With typical arrogance, the Anglos claimed to cherish freedom of speech but failed to recognize this right for anyone but themselves. Where did the Constitution say anything about English?
James Crawford
#77. Prayer has a right to the word "ineffable." It is an hour of outpourings which words cannot express,
of that interior speech which we do not articulate, even when we employ it.
Sophie Swetchine
#78. Because I care about human beings, I want them to be free to do what is right for them. Isn't that more important than mere peace on earth? Isn't freedom, even dangerous freedom, preferable to the safest slavery, to peace bought with ignorance, cowardice, and submission?
CrimethInc.
#79. I don't need a speech. I have all I need to say right up here. He pointed at his head in confidence.
Brad McKinniss
#80. I believe that the freedom of speech should be protected, but so should a family's right to privacy as they grieve their loss. There is a time and a place for vigorous debate on the War on Terror, but during a family's last goodbye is not it.
Dave Reichert
#81. When my father returned home on the twenty-first of August 1983, he had a speech prepared. Filipinos never got to hear it, because he was murdered right on the tarmac.
Benigno Aquino III
#82. Freedom of speech is central to most every other right that we hold dear in the United States and serves to strengthen the democracy of our great country. It is unfortunate, then, when actions occur that might be interpreted as contrary to this honored tenet.
Sam Farr
#83. How careless of me!" By which she meant that she had deduced that he had found [them] in his pocket and pitied him for needing to be forever in the right.
Tom Holt
#84. Does a person have a right to change his or her own religion? This is a fundamental human right, just like a right to freedom of speech.
Miroslav Volf
#85. Isocrates: Democracy destroys itself because it abuses its right to freedom and equality. Because it teaches its citizens to consider audacity as a right, lawlessness as a freedom, abrasive speech as equality, and anarchy as progress.
Michael Lewis
#86. Citizens United fought to defend our right to free speech - and won a great victory in the United States Supreme Court.
Marsha Blackburn
#87. Free speech includes the right to not speak.
Jimmy Wales
#88. You have no right to go before a public without an adequate technique, just because you feel. Anything feels - a leaf feels, a storm feels - what right have you to do that? You have to have speech, and it's a cultivated speech.
Martha Graham
#89. The right to defy an unconstitutional statute is basic in our scheme. Even when an ordinance requires a permit to make a speech, to deliver a sermon, to picket, to parade, or to assemble, it need not be honored when it's invalid on its face.
Potter Stewart
#90. For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech,
To stir men's blood: I only speak right on;
I tell you that which you yourselves do know;
William Shakespeare
#91. Since 2009, 140 Tibetans have immolated themselves to protest Chinese policies that limit their freedom of movement, speech and religion, especially their right to venerate the Dalai Lama.
Barbara Demick
#92. I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
S.G. Tallentyre
#93. Freedom of speech is a two way street, man. You have the right to say whatever you want and the Boss has a right to tell the police to arrest you.
Lenny Bruce
#94. I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an ass of yourself.
Oscar Wilde
#95. Sufficient unto the day is one baby. As long as you are in your right mind don't you ever pray for twins. Twins amount to a permanent riot; and there ain't any real difference between triplets and a insurrection.
- The Babies speech 1879
Mark Twain
#96. Live your fear." Why didn't we teach kids that? Why wasn't that in a graduation speech? Commencement speakers should start telling the truth: "You're going to fuck up, but most of the time, that's all right.
Mara Wilson
#97. Balanced' is a code for 'denied': a right to free speech that must be 'balanced' against so exhaustive a list of other supposed values means a right that can be exercised only when those in power judge that the speech in question is innocuous to them.
Ronald Dworkin
#98. I live in America. 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
#99. I believe in freedom of speech, but I believe we should also have the right to comment on freedom of speech.
Stockwell Day
#100. Sometimes a people lose their right to remain silent when pressured to remain silent.
Criss Jami
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