Freedom Of Speech Quotes - Page 12

• The regime had understood that one person leaving her house while asking herself: Are my trousers long enough?' Is my veil in place?' Can my make-up be seen?' Are they going to whip me?' No longer asks herself: Where is my freedom of thought?' Where is my freedom of speech?' My life, is it livable?' What's going on in the political prisons?

  Marjane Satrapi

  Long, House, Political

  4 Copy quote

• At the heart of the First Amendment is the recognition of the fundamental importance of the free flow of ideas and opinions on matters of public interest and concern. The freedom to speak one's mind is not only an aspect of individual liberty - and thus a good unto itself - but also is essential to the common quest for truth and the vitality of society as a whole. We have therefore been particularly vigilant to ensure that individual expressions of ideas remain free from governmentally imposed sanctions.

  William Rehnquist

  Heart, Expression, Ideas

  "Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46". The U.S. Supreme Court case, www.law.cornell.edu. February 24, 1988.

  29 Copy quote

  Show source

• The time has now come to amend the Constitution to restore freedom of speech for America's people of faith.

  Ralph E. Reed, Jr.

  Christian, Religious, America

  7 Copy quote

• The American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds lest they be politically smeared as 'Communists' or 'Fascists' by their opponents. Freedom of speech is not what it used to be in America. It has been so abused by some that it is not exercised by others.

  Margaret Chase Smith

  Tired, America, Sick

  Declaration of Conscience, delivered 1 June 1950

  35 Copy quote

  Show source

• Without freedom of speech, there is no modern world, just a barbaric one.

  Ai Weiwei

  World, Modern, Barbaric

  "Ai Weiwei, Nursing Head Wound, Sharpens Criticism: Review" by Catherine Hickley, Bloomberg.com, October 14, 2009.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• The more a government strives to curtail freedom of speech, the more obstinately is it resisted; not indeed by the avaricious, ... but by those whom good education, sound morality, and virtue have rendered more free.

  Baruch Spinoza

  Government, Sound, Morality

  "Tractatus Theologico-Politicus" by Baruch Spinoza, (Ch. 20), 1677.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Free speech is essential to education, especially to a liberal education, which encourages the search for truths in art and science. If expression is restricted, the range of inquiry is also curtailed... The beneficiaries of a free society have a duty to pursue the truth and to protect the freedom of expression that makes possible the search for a new enlightenment.

  Norman Dorsen

  Education, Art, Truth

  7 Copy quote

• Beware! Freedom of speech also includes the freedom to be misunderstood.

  Ashleigh Brilliant

  Misunderstood, Speech

  8 Copy quote

• Tabloids invoke freedom of speech, but they're not interested in that, they're just interested in who's shagging whom, who's got drunk. And if you take that pretend, faux moral standpoint, you end up with people in public life being completely boring. Like they've had their genitals removed.

  Jarvis Cocker

  People, Drunk, Tabloids

  "Jarvis Cocker answers your questions: 'Go on, then, give us the horrible ones'". Interview with Miranda Sawyer, www.theguardian.com. November 27, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Ideas about the scope and meaning of freedom of speech do expand and contract with the times. At the moment, we live in an age that is very permissive, both legally and socially, on a wide range of subjects from Karl Marx to kinky sex. This has not always been the case. Things that even children freely see and read and hear today -- writings, pictures, words -- would have been banned as just plain obscene, even for adults, as recently as the middle of the twentieth century.

  Lawrence M. Friedman

  Sex, Children, Writing

  4 Copy quote

• If we were going to address what involves the biggest number of women, reproductive freedom is a fundamental human right - like freedom of speech, the most basic right. Freedom from violence, since women worldwide are still like 70% at least of all victims of violence. Equality in the family, democracy in the family, since the family is the microcosm of everything else, so if you have inequality and violence in the family, it normalizes it in the street, for foreign policy, for every place else.

  Gloria Steinem

  Numbers, Democracy, Fundamentals

  Source: bluestockingsmag.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Students throughout the totalitarian world risk life and limb for freedom of expression, many American college students are demanding that big brother restrict their freedom of speech on campus. This demand for enhanced censorship is not emanating only from the usual corner - the know-nothing fundamentalist right - it is coming from the radical, and increasingly not-so-radical left as well.

  Alan Dershowitz

  Brother, College, Government

  5 Copy quote

• To fight oppression, and to work as best we can for a sane organization of society, we do not have to abandon the state of mind offreedom. If we do that we are letting the same thuggery in by the back door that we are fighting off in front of the house.

  John Dos Passos

  Fighting, Thoughtful, Thinking

  John Dos Passos (1988). “John Dos Passos: the major nonfictional prose”

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The first amendment protects free speech, but if you don't have freedom of thought, do you really have freedom of speech?

  Rob Kampia

  Firsts, First Amendment, Free Speech

  8 Copy quote

• I'm not making light of prayers here, but of so-called school prayer, which bears as much resemblance to real spiritual experienceas that freeze-dried astronaut food bears to a nice standing rib roast. From what I remember of praying in school, it was almost an insult to God, a rote exercise in moving your mouth while daydreaming or checking out the cutest boy in the seventh grade that was a far, far cry from soul-searching.

  Anna Quindlen

  Spiritual, Prayer, Nice

  4 Copy quote

• In China, your freedom is always limited, but this limitation applies to almost everyone. If someone does injustice to you, though, you have to find a way to avenge yourself - even by illegal measures. In a sense, injustice is more personal. This idea has always been in Chinese history. I think we read about freedom of speech, or lack of freedom of speech, in China so often. But I don't think people here in America think about how justice, or the idea of justice, is so important in a Chinese setting. It's probably more important than freedom of speech in the Chinese mindset at this moment.

  Yiyun Li

  Thinking, People, Justice

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• In liberal society we claim that freedom of speech is sacred and therefore has an absolute character. But we know (or should know) that "free speech" inhabits a structured space: not only is "hate speech" legally forbidden in liberal societies, but there are also laws protecting the circulation of copyrighted material, and the reproduction of trademarks and patents without explicit permission.

  Talal Asad

  Hate, Character, Law

  8 Copy quote

• There's a lot of rules and laws that I follow that our country has set up in the universities. So I definitely follow those. But, I can still be who I am. Still say where my faith, my trust, my inspiration comes from. We still have this freedom of speech on that side of that! So there are some conflicting situations there. But at the same time, it still goes back to my faith and who I am in Jesus Christ and not who I am - Mike MacIntyre - but who I am in Jesus Christ.

  Mike MacIntyre

  Country, Jesus, Inspiration

  Source: www.cbn.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• So many academics have been imprisoned or expelled from their university posts just because they signed a letter calling for peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue. They are all declared enemies of the state by the president. Just because they published a letter saying, "stop killing each other and begin talking for a peaceful resolution." That kind of intolerance from the government towards the rest of society - especially people in favor of freedom of speech, human rights, and more democracy for everyone - is a very important issue in Turkey.

  Burhan Sonmez

  People, Peaceful, Enemy

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Constitution, in addition to delegating certain enumerated powers to Congress, places whole areas outside the reach of Congress' regulatory authority. The First Amendment, for example, is fittingly celebrated for preventing Congress from "prohibiting the free exercise" of religion or "abridging the freedom of speech." The Second Amendment similarly appears to contain an express limitation on the government's authority.

  Clarence Thomas

  Exercise, Government, Second Amendment

  20 Copy quote

• I wouldn't perform in front of the Nazis. I hear they didn't take freedom of speech too well. It would be a fun gig to rip into them, but I don't think the ending would be great for me.

  Jim Jefferies

  Fun, Rip, Thinking

  Source: manofmany.com

  41 Copy quote

  Show source

• The social or economic structure of the ideal state is of little concern to me. My desires are modest. Portraits of the head of the government should not exceed a postage stamp in size. No torture and no executions. No music, except coming through earphones, or played in theaters. Freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of art.

  Vladimir Nabokov

  Art, Government, Desire

  Interview with Alvin Toffler, reprints.longform.org. January 1964.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is within the established American tradition of satire, if America surrenders on this point, the freedom of speech is a relic of history.

  Pamela Geller

  Freedom, America, Speech

  13 Copy quote

• There is price you pay when you want freedom of speech. You must be willing to accept the good the bad and the ugly when trying something out of the box.

  Sunny Leone

  Trying, Ugly, Want

  23 Copy quote

• Social media changed Chinese mindset. More and more Chinese intend to embrace freedom of speech and human rights as their birthright, not some imported American privilege. But also, it gave the Chinese a national public sphere for people to, it's like a training of their citizenship, preparing for future democracy.

  Michael Anti

  Rights, Media, People

  6 Copy quote