Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [81-100] of 371 Free Thought quotesFree Thought QuotesFree Thought Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes The right to revolt has sources deep in our history.~ William O. Douglas Among the liberties of citizens that are guaranteed are ... the right to believe what one chooses, the right to differ from his neighbor, the right to pick and choose the political philosophy he likes best, the right to associate with whomever he chooses, the right to join groups he prefers ...~ William O. Douglas The great and invigorating influences in American life have been the unorthodox: the people who challenge an existing institution or way of life, or say and do things that make people think.~ William O. Douglas The great and invigorating influences in American life have been the unorthodox: the people who challenge an existing institution or way of life, or say and do things that make people think.~ William O. Douglas What is possible for me is possible for you.~ Frederick Douglass All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.~ Albert Einstein We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.~ Albert Einstein Imagination is more important than knowledge.~ Albert Einstein A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.~ Ralph Waldo Emerson Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.~ Ralph Waldo Emerson Who shall forbid a wise skepticism, seeing that there is no practical question on which anything more than an approximate solution can be had?~ Ralph Waldo Emerson 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.~ Thomas I. Emerson The right to freedom of expression is justified first of all as the right of an individual purely in his capacity as an individual. It derives from the widely accepted premise of Western thought that the proper end of man is the realization of his character and potentialities as a human being.~ Thomas I. Emerson What occurs to me in reading their book is that the new American approach to social control is so much more sophisticated and pervasive that it really deserves a new name. It isn't just propaganda any more, it's 'prop-agenda'. It's not so much the control of what we think, but the control of what we think about. When our governments want to sell us a course of action, they do it by making sure it's the only thing on the agenda, the only thing everyone's talking about. And they pre-load the ensuing discussion with highly selected images, devious and prejudicial language, dubious linkages, weak or false 'intelligence' and selected 'leaks'. ~ Brian Eno But this is slavery, not to speak one’s thought.~ Euripides The civilized man has a moral obligation to be skeptical, to demand the credentials of all statements that claim to be facts.~ Bergan Evans Censorship is a dangerous tool that is primarily used to suppress from those who would challenge oppression by the society and that state, and particularly victimizes minorities. [It] can never eliminate evil ideas, and so the best answer to bad speech is more speech.~ Feminists Against Censorship You thus have no rights at all over our freedom of thought, you princes; no jurisdiction over that which is true or false; no right to determine the objects of our inquiry or to set limits to it; no right to hinder us from communicating the results, whether they be true or false, to whomever or however we wish.~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte Either you think – or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.~ F. Scott Fitzgerald We must not overlook the role that extremists play. They are the gadflies that keep society from being too complacent.~ Abraham Flexner Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print