All quotes

Thus, even as the colonists embarked on a course to secure their own freedom and equality, they ensured perpetuation of the system that deprived a whole race of those rights.

The object of all life is development; and everything that lives has an inalienable right to all the development it is capable of attaining.

You can do what you want to do, and it is your right and privilege to follow the business or avocation which will be most congenial and pleasant.

The soul of a journey is liberty, perfect liberty, to think, feel, do, just as one pleases.

The spirit of liberty is the sovereign balm for every injury which our institutions may receive.

We should make every effort to prevent humiliating and degrading prohibition against any of our citizens wishing temporarily to sojourn in foreign countries because of race or religion.

The general proposition that freedom of expression upon public questions is secured by the First Amendment has long been settled by our decisions.

that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials

If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment , it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.

We do not consecrate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so we dilute the freedom that this cherished emblem represents.

Convince me that liberty is not the inalienable birthright of every human being, of whatever complexion or clime, and I will give that instrument to the consuming fire.

Convince me that one man may rightfully make another man his slave, and I will no longer subscribe to the Declaration of Independence.

Hence, I cannot but regard oppression in every form--and most of all, that which turns a man into a thing--with indignation and abhorrence.

What you demand for yourselves, in virtue of your manhood, I demand for the enslaved at the South, on the same ground.

One's beliefs have long been thought to be sanctuaries which government could not invade.

The quality of advocacy turns on the depth of the conviction; and government has no power to invade that sanctuary of belief and conscience.

Free speech has occupied an exalted position because of the high service it has given our society.

Free speech--the glory of our system of government--should not be sacrificed on anything less than plain and objective proof of danger that the evil advocated is imminent.

Otherwise, free speech which is the strength of the Nation will be the cause of its destruction.

The right to speak freely and to promote diversity of ideas and programs is therefore one of the chief distinctions that sets us apart from totalitarian regimes.

The vitality of civil and political institutions in our society depends on free discussion.

As indispensable to the preservation of our system of self-government, the independence of the representatives of the States and the people is guaranteed by the Constitution, and they owe no responsibility to any human power but their constituents.

Do you think I was born to live the life of an oyster, such as I do live here?

it is nevertheless often true that one man's vulgarity is another's lyric

All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.