Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quoteShare via Email Print this Page Daily Quotes Archives2007-06-08 Jun 8, 2007If any opinion be compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we can certainly know, be true. To deny this is to assume our own infallibility.~ John Stuart MillIt was not by accident or coincidence that the rights to freedom in speech and press were coupled in a single guaranty with the rights of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition for redress of grievances. All these, though not identical, are inseparable. They are cognate rights, and therefore are united in the first Article’s assurance.~ Judge Wiley B. RutledgeThe problem of freedom in America is that of maintaining a competition of ideas, and you do not achieve that by silencing one brand of idea.~ Max Lerner Jun 7, 2007Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained.~ John Stuart MillA 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.~ Justice George SutherlandPersecution in intellectual countries produces a superficial conformity, but also underneath an intense, incessant, implacable doubt.~ Walter Bagehot Jun 6, 2007If you admit that to silence your opponent by force is to win an intellectual argument, then you admit the right to silence people by force.~ Hans EysenckThink not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions, but those who kindly reprove thy faults.~ SocratesThe abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power.~ William Shakespeare Jun 5, 2007Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking; where it is absent, discussion is apt to become worse than useless.~ Leo Nikolaevich TolstoiFree inquiry requires that we tolerate diversity of opinion and that we respect the right of individuals to express their beliefs, however unpopular they may be, without social or legal prohibition or fear of success.~ Paul KurtzThere’s a whiff of the lynch mob or the lemming migration about any over-large concentration of like-minded individuals, no matter how virtuous their cause.~ P. J. O'Rourke Jun 4, 2007The mark of a truly civilized man is confidence in the strength and security derived from the inquiring mind.~ Felix FrankfurterHuman progress is furthered, not by conformity, but by aberration.~ H. L. MenckenThe door of the Free Exercise Clause stands tightly closed against any government regulation of religious beliefs as such. Government may neither compel affirmation of a repugnant belief, nor penalize or discriminate against individuals or groups because they hold views abhorrent to the authorities.~ Justice William J. Brennan Previous week's quotes Next week's quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print