Free Speech Quotes - Page 17

• Corporation: a miniature totalitarian state governed by a hierarchy of unelected officials who take a dim view of individualism, free speech, equality and eggheads. The backbone of all Western democracies.

  Rick Bayan

  Views, Democracy, Speech

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• 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

  Freedom, Mean, Power

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• Free speech is meaningless if the commercial cacophony has risen to the point where no one can hear you.

  Naomi Klein

  Freedom Of Speech, Cacophony, Risen

  Naomi Klein (2000). “No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies”, Vintage Canada

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• If America's tv and movie producers are unwilling to clean up their act... when it comes to sex, bloodshed and violence in their programming... the government stands ready to step in.

  Janet Reno

  Sex, Government, America

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• If five years from now we solve the access problem, but what we're hearing is all encrypted, I'll probably, if I'm still here, be talking about that in a very different way: the objective is the same. The objective is for us to get those conversations whether they're by an alligator clip or ones and zeros. Whoever they are, whatever they are, I need them.

  Louis J. Freeh

  Talking, Years, Different

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• Maybe we need a tax credit for the poorest Americans to buy a laptop. Now, maybe that's wrong, maybe that's expensive, maybe we can't do it, but I'll tell you, any signal that we can send to the poorest Americans that says, 'We're going into a 21st century, third-wave information age, and so are you, and we want to carry you with us.'

  Newt Gingrich

  Age, Needs, Credit

  "Your Daily Newt: A $40 Billion Entitlement for Laptops" by Tim Murphy, www.motherjones.com. December 20, 2011.

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• It will allow us to control all the communication needs of a household with one device.

  John C. Malone

  Communication, Needs, Internet

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  What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.

  Salman Rushdie

  Honesty, Integrity, Expression

  Salman Rushdie (1990). “In good faith”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

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• Nobody needs to justify why they "need" a right: the burden of justification falls on the one seeking to infringe upon the right. But even if they did, you can't give away the rights of others because they're not useful to you. More simply, the majority cannot vote away the natural rights of the minority. 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

  Fall, Rights, Giving

  Reddit AMA, www.reddit.com. May 21, 2015.

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• It's funny that we think of libraries as quiet demure places where we are shushed by dusty, bun-balancing, bespectacled women. The truth is libraries are raucous clubhouses for free speech, controversy and community. Librarians have stood up to the Patriot Act, sat down with noisy toddlers and reached out to illiterate adults. Libraries can never be shushed.

  Paula Poundstone

  Truth, Women, Book

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• Start doing the things you think should be done, and start being what you think society should become. Do you believe in free speech? Then speak freely. Do you love the truth? Then tell it. Do you believe in an open society? Then act in the open. Do you believe in a decent and humane society? Then behave decently and humanely.

  Adam Michnik

  Love, Life, Wisdom

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• The durability of free speech and free press rests on the simple concept that it search for the truth and tell the truth.

  Herbert Hoover

  Simple, Government, Presidential

  Herbert Hoover (1938). “Addresses upon the American road”

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• Our culture is at a critical cusp - a time that requires that we define what it means to be a citizen in a democracy. Within our nation we need to foster a greater sense of collective responsibility.

  Robert Neelly Bellah

  Mean, Responsibility, Democracy

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• It is almost impossible for anyone outside this damn beltway to really understand how the Congress works. If you aren't here, walking the halls of Congress, sitting at bars and attending parties where you get to knock back some brews with Hill staffers, you don't have a handle on the almost numbing amount of bullshit that goes on.

  Brock N. Meeks

  Party, Bullshit, Bars

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• ... We have seen dog-tired Members of Congress marching lockstep ahead with their eyes fixed only on the end of the 100 Days of the 1995 Republican 'Contract with America' reform efforts. Many of the changes wrought by the House were passed without the benefit of a single hearing, or at best with a minimal legislative record. Is this what Jefferson and Madison had in mind?

  John Gibbons

  Dog, Tired, Eye

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• In a Time/CNN poll of 1,000 Americans conducted last week by Yankelovich Partners, two-thirds said it was more important to protect the privacy of phone calls than to preserve the ability of police to conduct wiretaps. When informed about the Clipper Chip, 80% said they opposed it.

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt

  Cnn, Phones, Two

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• History has shown that there are very few mechanisms as effective at maintaining the status quo as a set of institutionalized regulations. Once set in regulatory concrete, reconsideration of the basic underlying assumptions is very difficult. While it will be an uphill fight to re-examine the basic underlying assumptions of any law or administrative rule, it is clearly not impossible. It will just take longer than if not so well institutionalized.

  Paul Baran

  Fighting, Maintaining The Status Quo, Law

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• If any issue should unite liberals and conservatives, anyone who cares about the integrity of human achievement or respect for human accomplishment, may we not all pledge to avoid the silly censoring that can lead to a codification of Orwell's Newspeak? Consider John Milton's reasons for why good arguments are often lost: 'For want of words, no doubt, or lack of breath!'

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Integrity, Silly, Issues

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• The DEFENSE of anything is UNTENABLE. The only way to defend anything is to ATTACK, and if you ever forget that, then you will lose every battle you are ever engaged in, whether it is in terms of personal conversation, public debate, or a court of law. NEVER BE INTERESTED IN CHARGES. DO, yourself, much MORE CHARGING, and you will WIN.

  L. Ron Hubbard

  Winning, Law, Battle

  "New trailer for The Master, which is still totally not about Scientology please don't sue us" by Vince Mancini, uproxx.com. August 28, 2012.

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• There is something sexy about a computer nerd.

  Sandra Bullock

  Sexy, Nerd, Computer

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• Have you ever gotten tired of hearing those ridiculous AT&T commercials claiming credit for things that don't even exist yet? You will.

  Eric Corley

  Tired, Credit, Hearing

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• There are already laws prohibiting the promotion of hatred and we are now considering new laws to establish limits on the use of the Internet and other forms of communication in a way that might be harmful to us all.

  Allan Rock

  Communication, Law, Hatred

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• The United States should.... avoid unilateral export controls and controls on technology widely available in world markets. Unilateral controls penalize U.S. exporters without advancing U.S. national security or foreign policy interests.

  William J. Clinton

  Technology, United States, World

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• This is not politics... it's to protect the innocence of children.

  Bob Dole

  Children, Innocence, Internet

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• I want the ability to monitor high-tech communications among far-flung terrorists. I want to be able to have our people learn their plans before they strike. That's the key.

  William J. Clinton

  Communication, Keys, People

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