Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [201-220] of 245 Censorship quotesCensorship QuotesCensorship Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes This is precisely the purpose of censorship – not only to block unwanted views, but to keep people who are unhappy from knowing how many millions of others share their unhappiness; to keep the dormant opposition from awakening to its own developing strength.~ Hedrick Smith The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen.~ Tommy Smothers Saying it’s okay for the government to spy on you because you’re innocent and you have “nothing to hide”... Is like saying it’s okay for the government to censor free speech because you have “nothing to say.” ~ Edward Snowden Woe to that nation whose literature is cut short by the intrusion of force. This is not merely interference with freedom of the press but the sealing up of a nation’s heart, the excision of its memory.~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn In our country, the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State.~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Journalists cannot serve two masters. To the extent that they take on the task of suppressing information or biting their tongue for the sake of some political agenda, they are betraying the trust of the public and corrupting their own profession.~ Thomas Sowell The Internet…has become the voice of the people in the first genuine experiment in democracy yet conducted in America. It stands ready to serve every facet, every faction.~ Gerry Spence The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.~ Herbert Spencer Laws which prescribe what everyone must believe, and forbid men to say or write anything against this or that opinion, are often passed to gratify, or rather to appease the anger of those who cannot abide independent minds.~ Baruch Spinoza Vices are not crimes.~ Lysander Spooner So, what the cultural elites are doing is what plenty of other authoritarian and totalitarian societies have done in the past. They are making the cost of telling the truth high enough that a general mass of people will be afraid to declare it publicly or even privately. ~ Jarrett Stepman As a matter of constitutional tradition, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, we presume that governmental regulation of the content of speech is more likely to interfere with the free exchange of ideas than to encourage it. The interest in encouraging freedom of expression in a democratic society outweighs any theoretical but unproven benefit of censorship.~ Justice John Paul Stevens Newspaper editors separate the wheat from the chaff -- and print the chaff.~ Adlai E. Stevenson II Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is the landmark of an authoritarian regime...~ Justice Potter Stewart Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.~ Justice Potter Stewart A free press stands as one of the great interpreters between the government and the people. To allow it to be fettered is to fetter ourselves.~ George Sutherland There is no such thing ... in America as an independent press.~ John Swinton Political censorship is necessarily based on fear of what will happen if those whose work is censored get their way, or if they are effecting in persuading a large number of readers to share their point of view. The nature of political censorship at any given time depends on the censor’s answer to the simple question, “What are you afraid of?”~ Donald Thompson Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.~ Henry David Thoreau Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.~ Harry S. Truman Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print