474 Quotes About Freedom-of-speech

Freedom of speech does not guarantee you a platform from which to air your opinions. You may hold trenchant views on a number of subjects but the fact that The Times won't print your ruminations doesn't mean you are being oppressed...While freedom of speech gives you the right to dissent and, yes, to offend, it does not give you the right to abuse.

Most reasonable people are ok with folks having a strong opinion about something. Where the smoke starts, is when those same people try to make you think YOUR BELIEFS are wrong (or stupid). Respect begets respect. That 1st Amendment reaches well past anyone's circle of like-minded friends.

Genuine bravery for a writer.... It is about calmly speaking the truth when everyone else is silenced, when the truth cannot be expressed. It is about speaking out with a different voice, risking the wrath of the state and offending everyone, for the sake of the truth, and the writer’s conscience.

It is difficult to call myself a writer, even when I stand at a podium to receive a prize, I feel uncomfortable calling myself a writer—I am merely a word criminal.

Actually, I am a coward. I say only what is safe to say, and I criticise only what is permissable to criticise.

The only truth is that we cannot speak the truth . The only acceptable viewpoint is that we cannot express a viewpoint.

Why is contemporary China short of works that speak directly? Because we writers cannot speak directly, or rather we can only speak in an indirect way.Why does contemporary China lack good works that critique our current situation? Because our current situation may not be critiqued. We have not only lost the right to criticise, but the courage to do so.Why is modern China lacking in great writers? Because all the great writers are castrated while still in the nursery.

Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech; which is the Right of every Man, as far as by it, he does not hurt or controul the Right of another: And this is the only Check it ought to suffer, and the only Bounds it ought to know.

We must not overlook the role that extremists play. They are the gadflies that keep society from being too complacent or self-satisfied; they are, if sound, the spearhead of progress. If they are fundamentally wrong, free discussion will in time put an end to them.