Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [201-220] of 502 Speech quotesSpeech QuotesSpeech Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Every individual of the community at large has an equal right to the protection of government.~ Alexander Hamilton Heretics have been hated from the beginning of recorded time; they have been ostracized, exiled, tortured, maimed and butchered; but it has generally proved impossible to smother them; and when it has not, the society that has succeeded has always declined.~ Judge Learned Hand All discussion, all debate, all dissidence tends to question and in consequence, to upset existing convictions; that is precisely its purpose and its justification.~ Judge Learned Hand I believe that the community is already in process of dissolution where each man begins to eye his neighbor as a possible enemy, where non-conformity with the accepted creed, political as well as religious, is a mark of disaffection; where denunciation, without specification or backing, takes the place of evidence, where orthodoxy chokes freedom of dissent; where faith in the eventual supremacy of reason has become so timid that we dare not enter our convictions in the open lists, to win or lose.~ Judge Learned Hand The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women...~ Judge Learned Hand In the end it is worse to suppress dissent than to run the risk of heresy.~ Judge Learned Hand The constitutional right of free expression... is designed and intended to remove governmental restraints from the arena of public discussion, putting the decision as to what views shall be voiced in the hands of each of us, in the hope that the use of such freedom will ultimately produce a more capable citizenry and more perfect polity and in the belief that no other approach would comport with the premise of individual dignity and choice upon which our political systems rests.~ John Marshall Harlan II I cannot assent to the view, if it be meant that the legislature may impair or abridge the rights of a free press and of free speech whenever it thinks that the public welfare requires that it be done. The public welfare cannot override constitutional privilege.~ John Marshall Harlan We cannot sanction the view that the Constitution, while solicitous of the cognitive content of individual speech, has little or no regard for that emotive function which, practically speaking, may often be the more important element of the overall message sought to be communicated.~ John Marshall Harlan II If a single writer in a country is in chains, then there are some links of that chain that binds us all.~ Vaclav Havel The ultimate decision about what is accepted as right and wrong will be made not by individual human wisdom but by the disappearance of the groups that have adhered to the "wrong" beliefs.~ Friedrich August von Hayek We hold that no person or set of persons can properly establish a standard of expression for others.~ William Randolph Hearst We hold that the greatest right in the world is the right to be wrong, that in the exercise thereof people have an inviolable right to express their unbridled thoughts on all topics and personalities, being liable only for the use of that right.~ William Randolph Hearst This is, in theory, still a free country, but our politically correct, censorious times are such that many of us tremble to give vent to perfectly acceptable views for fear of condemnation. Freedom of speech is thereby imperiled, big questions go undebated, and great lies become accepted, unequivocally as great truths.~ Simon Heffer Whenever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.~ Heinrich Heine Limiting the freedom of news ‘just a little bit’ is in the same category within the classic example ‘a little bit pregnant.’~ Robert A. Heinlein Since when do you have to agree with people to defend them from injustice?~ Lillian Hellman We are now considering legislation based on statistics that include name-calling at public rallies as crimes. Are we going on to the school yards of this country and when two kids get angry with each other and call each other names -- what are we going to do, cart them over to the reformatory or add them to the list of 'hate crimes' perpetrators? This is ridiculous.~ Jesse Helms Satire dramatizes better than any other use of it, the inherent contradiction of free speech – that it functions best when what is being said is at its most outrageous.~ Tony Hendra Those who created this country chose freedom. With all of its dangers. And do you know the riskiest part of that choice they made? They actually believed that we could be trusted to make up our own minds in the whirl of differing ideas. That we could be trusted to remain free, even when there were very, very seductive voices – taking advantage of our freedom of speech – who were trying to turn this country into the kind of place where the government could tell you what you can and cannot do.~ Nat Hentoff Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print