41 Quotes by Henry Steele Commager

The justification and the purpose of freedom of speech is not to indulge those who want to speak their minds. It is to prevent error and discover truth. There may be other ways of detecting error and discovering truth than that of free discussion, but so far we have not found them.

The Americans who framed our Constitution felt that without freedom of religion no other freedom counted.

History is organized memory, and the organization is all important!

America was born of revolt, flourished on dissent, became great through experimentation.

The English love for privacy is proverbial, and has not been exaggerated. A stranger who strikes up a conversation is looked upon with suspicion - unless he happens to be an American, when his ignorance of good manners is indulged.

Change does not necessarily assure progress, but progress implacably requires change.

The Bill of Rights was not written to protect governments from trouble. It was written precisely to give the people the constitutional means to cause trouble for governments they no longer trusted.

A free society cherishes nonconformity. It knows from the non-conformist, from the eccentric, have come many of the great ideas.

Education is essential to change, for education creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy them.