Free Thought Quotes

• Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.

  William O. Douglas

  Teaching, Rights In America, Political Revolution

  "The One Un-American Act". William O. Douglas' speech to the Author's Guild Council in New York on receiving the 1951 Lauterbach Award, December 3, 1952.

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• If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought, not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

  Freedom, Hate, Attachment

  United States v. Schwimmer (dissenting opinion) (1929)

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• There is no bigotry like that of "free thought" run to seed.

  Horace Greeley

  Running, Racist, Seeds

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• No one ever heard of the truth being enforced by law. When the secular is called in to sustain an idea, whether new or old, it is always a bad idea, and not infrequently it is downright idiotic.

  H. L. Mencken

  Truth, Law, Ideas

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.382, Knopf

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• It is our attitude toward free thought and free expression that will determine our fate. There must be no limit on the range of temperate discussion, no limits on thought. No subject must be taboo. No censor must preside at our assemblies.

  William O. Douglas

  Attitude, Fate, Expression

  "The One Un-American Act". William O. Douglas' speech to the Author's Guild Council in New York on receiving the 1951 Lauterbach Award, December 3, 1952.

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• Who dares not speak his free thoughts is a slave.

  Euripides

  Speak, Slave, Dare

  Euripides (1814). “The tragedies of Euripides translated [by R. Potter]. by R. Potter”, p.307

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• Free thought means fearless thought. It is not deterred by legal penalties, nor by spiritual consequences. Dissent from the Bible does not alarm the true investigator, who takes truth for authority not authority for truth. The thinker who is really free, is independent; he is under no dread; he yields to no menace; he is not dismayed by law, nor custom, nor pulpits, nor society-whose opinion appals so many. He who has the manly passion of free thought, has no fear of anything, save the fear of error.

  George Holyoake

  Spiritual, Passion, Mean

  George Jacob Holyoake (1896). “English Secularism: A Confession of Belief”, p.18, Library of Alexandria

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• The only thought in the world that is worth anything is free thought. To free thought we owe all past progress and all hope for the future. Since when has any one made it appear that shackled thought could get on better than that which is free? Brains are a great misfortune if one is never to use them.

  Richard Savage

  Past, Brain, Progress

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• Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace.

  Gautama Buddha

  Inspiring, Karma, Wise

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• To speak his thoughts is every freeman's right, in peace and war, in council and in fight.

  Homer

  Peace, War, Fighting

  Homer, W. C. Armstrong (1851). “Translation of the Iliad of Homer”, p.267

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• Who is journeying for freedom? The one who is already free. Thoughts are impediments to seeing your own face. Don't give rise to any thought, and discover who you are.

  H. W. L. Poonja

  Giving, Faces, Awareness

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• Anyone in a position to overcome barriers to free thought and communication should do so.

  Noam Chomsky

  Communication, Overcoming, Should

  Source: www.publicanthropology.org

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• Let us labor for the security of free thought, free speech, pure morals, unfettered religious sentiments, and equal rights and privileges for all men, irrespective of nationality, color, or religion;.... leave the matter of religious teaching to the family altar, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contribution. Keep church and state forever separate.

  Ulysses S. Grant

  Religious, Teaching, School

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• Naturally, the common people don't want war ... but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.

  Hermann Goring

  Country, Peace, Military

  Interview in Göring's jail cell, April 18, 1946. "Nuremberg Diary". Book by Gustave Gilbert, 1947.

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• Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

  James Madison

  Exercise, Secular Society, Law

  Virginia. General Assembly. House of Delegates, J. W. Randolph, James Madison (1850). “The Virginia Report of 1799-1800: Touching the Alien and Sedition Laws; Together with the Virginia Resolutions of December 21, 1798, Including the Debate and Proceedings Thereon in the House of Delegates of Virginia and Other Documents Illustrative of the Report and Resolutions”, p.136

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• Men of ideas vanish when freedom vanishes.

  Carl Sandburg

  Freedom, Science, Men

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• There is never any fair and thorough discussion of heretical opinions... The greatest harm done is to those who are not heretics, and whose whole mental development is cramped and their reason cowed, by the fear of heresy.

  John Stuart Mill

  Speech, Done, Development

  John Stuart Mill (1864). “On Liberty”, p.61

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• The authoritarian sets up some book, or man, or tradition to establish the truth. The freethinker sets up reason and private judgment to discover the truth... It takes the highest courage to utter unpopular truths.

  Herbert Spencer

  Courage, Truth, Book

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• Only those who have lived all their lives under the dark clouds of vague, undefined fears can appreciate the joy of a doubting soul suddenly born into the kingdom of reason and free thought.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Dark, Clouds, Appreciate

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan Brownell Anthony, Ann Dexter Gordon (1997). “The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: In the school of anti-slavery, 1840 to 1866”, p.411, Rutgers University Press

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• To those who are trained in science, creationism seems a bad dream, a sudden coming back to life of a nightmare, a renewed march of an Army of the Night risen to challenge free thought and enlightenment.

  Isaac Asimov

  Dream, Army, Night

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• Our thoughts are free.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Our Thoughts

  Marcus Tullius Cicero, William Duncan (1792). “Cicero's Select Orations”, p.491

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• Pure Christianity and serious godliness fear not the scrutiny of a free thought, but despise the impotent malice of a prejudiced one.

  Matthew Henry

  Serious, Christianity, Despise

  Matthew Henry (1850*). “The Miscellaneous Writings of the Revd. Matthew Henry: Consisting of Sermons, Tracts and Biographical Sketches of Eminent Christians and Ministers. To which is Added the Sermon Preached on the Author's Death”, p.202

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• Sincere thought, real free thought, ready, in the name of superhuman authority or of humble common sense, to question the basis of what is officially taught and generally accepted, is less and less likely to thrive. It is, we repeat, by far easier to enslave a literate people than an illiterate one, strange as this may seem at first sight. And the enslavement is more likely to be lasting.

  Savitri Devi

  Real, Humble, Sight

  Savitri Devi (2010). “The Lightning and the Sun”, p.7, Lulu.com

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• Freedom of conscience is a natural right, both antecedent and superior to all human laws and institutions whatever; a right which laws never gave and a right which laws can never take away.

  John Goodwin

  Responsibility, Law, Justice

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• To later Romans Ennius was the personification of the spirit of early Rome; by them he was called "The Father of Roman Poetry." We must remember how truly Greek he was in his point of view. He set the example for later Latin poetry by writing the first epic of Rome in Greek hexameter verses instead of in the old Saturnian verse. He made popular the doctrines of Euhemerus, and he was in general a champion of free thought and rationalism.

  Quintus Ennius

  Father, Latin, Writing

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