Umberto Eco Quotes

I no longer believe in freedom of speech.

Advocates of 'free speech' often repeat the mantra that the best response to bad speech is more and better speech, not the suppression of the bad stuff.

The American public is capable of doing its own censoring… If you curtail what the other fellow says and does, you curtail what you yourself may say and do.

Political speech is indispensable to decision-making in a democracy, and this is no less true because the speech comes from a corporation. By taking the right to speak from some and giving it to others, the Government deprives the disadvantaged person or class of the right to use speech to strive to establish worth, standing, and respect for the speaker’s voice. The Government may not by these means deprive the public of the right and privilege to determine for itself what speech and speakers are worthy of consideration. The First Amendment protects speech and speaker, and the ideas that flow from each.

I hate to do anything that is going to stop or suppress free speech.

It's no surprise to say I oppose the ban [of Donald Trump].If we only allow free speech for those we already agree with, is that free speech at all?

Freedom of speech is a great thing and we have said nothing that is not allowed.

It is amazing how many people act as if the right to free speech includes the right to be free of criticism for what you say - which means that other people should not have the same right to free speech that they claim for themselves.

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

I would rather put up with Rush Limbaugh and live in a country where we all do have freedom of speech.

We really don't have free speech protections. I mean, if it exists, there are rules about it. If it exists, it is regulated in Europe, you know?

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

In the past, those who had ideas they wished to communicate to the public had the unquestioned right to disseminate those ideas in an open marketplace, called a mall, we should not abridge that right.

Freedom of expression and freedom of speech aren't really important unless they're heard. The freedom of hearing is as important as the freedom of speaking.

Society needs a couple of vents that say what you're not supposed to say.

I shall stand for freedom of thought and expression in a place where it has been trampled and penalized.

Why shouldn't I be allowed to say stupid, outrageous things?

I think Thomas Jefferson would have said the more speech, the better.

We have freedom of speech, but you got to watch what you say.

We need to defend absolutely the freedom of speech.

So the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is out there preserving and fighting for, and sometimes winning and sometimes losing, the fight for First Amendment rights in comics and, more generally, for freedom of speech.

Free speech is meant to protect unpopular speech. Popular speech, by definition, needs no protection.

You may not like the expression of an opinion, but you can't stop it.

Freedom of speech means that you shall not do something to people either for the views they express, or the words they speak or write.

[E]rroneous statement … must be protected if the freedoms of expression are to be given the breathing space that they need ... to survive.