"Liberty of speech inviteth and provoketh liberty to be used again, and so bringeth much to a man's knowledge." [Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English essayist, philosopher] ------- "The Framers [of the Constitution] knew that free speech is the friend of change and revolution. But they also knew that it is always the deadliest enemy of tyranny." [Hugo L. Black (1886-1971) U.S. Supreme Court Justice] ------- "Without free speech no search for truth is possible... no discovery of truth is useful... Better a thousandfold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech. The abuse dies in a day, but the denial slays the life of the people, and dentombs the hope of the race." [Charles Bradlaugh (1833-1891) English reformer] ------- "Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify oppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears." [Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941) U.S. Supreme Court Justice] ------- "The most beautiful thing in the world is freedom of speech" [Diogenes "the Cynic" (c.400-c.325 B.C.) Greek philosopher] ------- "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 (1898-1980) U.S. Supreme Court Justice] ------- "When men can freely communicate their thoughts and their sufferings, real or imaginary, their passions spend themselves in air like gunpowder scattered upon the surface- but pent up by terrors, they work unseen, burst forth in a moment, and destroy everything in their course. Let reason be opposed to reason, and argument to argument, and every good government will be safe" [Thomas Erskine (1750-1823) Baron, Lord Chancellor of England] ------- "The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen then can freely speak, write, and print, subject to responsibility for the abuse of this freedom in the cases determined by law." [France Art. 11] ------- "Freedom of expression is the well-spring of our civilization... The history of civilization is in considerable measure the displacement of error which once held sway as offical truth by beliefs which in turn have yielded to other truths. Therefore the liberty of man to search for truth ought no to be fettered, no matter what orthodoxies he may challenge. Liberty of thought soon shrivels without freedom of expression. Nor can truth be pursued in an atmosphere hostile to the endeavor or under dangers which are hazarded only by heroes." [Felix Frankfurter (1822-1965) U.S. Supreme Court Justice] ------- "When men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct, that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas- that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon whcih their wishes safely can be carried out. That at any rate is the theory of our Constitution. It is an experiment as all life is an experiment. 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 (1841-1935) U.S. Supreme Court Justice] ------- "The greater the importance to safeguarding the community from incitements to the overthrow of our instituions by force and violence, the more imperative is the need to preserve the constitutional rights of free speech, free press and free assembly in order to maintain the opportunity for free political discussion, to the end that governemnt may be responsive to the will of the people and that changes, if desired, may be obtained by peaceful means. Therein lies the security of the Republic, the very foundation of constitutional government." [Charles Evans Hughes (1862-1948) Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court] ------- "I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech... But the whole thing, after all, may be put very simply. I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than to be ignorant." [Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956) American editor, critic, lexicographer] ------- "To express unafraid and unashamed what one really thinks and feels is one of the great consolations of life" [Theodor Reik (1888-1969) Austrian- born American psycholanalyst] ------- "We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression- everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way- everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want... The fourth is freedom from fear..." [Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) 32nd President of the United States] ------- "Freedom of speech and of the press do not protect disturbances to the public peace or the attempt to subvert the government. it does not protect publicatoins or teachings which tend to subvert or imperil the government, or to impede or hinder it in the performance of its governmental duties. it does not protect publicatoins prompting the overthrow of the government by force" [Edward T. Sanford (1865-1930) U.S. Supreme Court Justice] ------- "It is to the abnormal condition of the body politic that all evils arising from an unrestrained expression of opinion must be attributed, and not to the the unrestrained expression itself. Under a sound social regime and its accompanying contentment, nothing is to be feared from the most uncontrolled utterance of thought and feeling." [Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) English philosopher] ------- "1. The church is separated from the state. 3. Every citizen may profess any religion or none at all. Any legal disabilities connected with the profession of any religion are abolished." -U.S.S.R. Constitution (1918) "In conformity with the interest of the working people, and in order to strengthen the socialist system, the citizens of the U.S.S.R. are guaranteed by law: (a) Freedom of Speech; (b) Freedom of the press; (c) Freedom of assembly, including the holding of mass meetings; (d) Freedom of street processions and demonstrations" [U.S.S.R. Constitution (1924) Not one of the four freedoms mentioned in the 1924 Constitution existed in 1985] ------- "I disaprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." [S.G. Tallentyre (pen name of E. Beatrice Hall) (1858-?) British writer, biographer of Voltaire] ------- "I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write." [Voltaire (1694-1778) French philosopher] ------- "To worship God and to leave every other man free to worship Him in his own way; to love one's neighbor, enlightening them if one can and pitying those who remain in error; to dismiss as immaterial all questions that would have given us no trouble if no importance had been attached to them- this is my religion, it is worth all your systems and symbols." [Voltaire (1694-1778) French philosopher] ------- "The history of intellectual growth and discovery clearly demonstrates the need for unfettered freedom, the right to think the unthinkable, discuss the unmentionable. To curtail free expression strikes twice at intellectual freedom, for whoever deprives another of the right to state unpopular views necessarily deprives others of the right to listen to those views." [C. Vann Woodward (1908-) American historian] ------- All quotes from "The Great Thoughts" compiled by George Seldes, Ballantine Books New York, Copyright 1985 by George Seldes.