William J. Brennan Jr. Quotes

The right to insult members of the government is inviolable.

[There exists a] profound national commitment to the principle 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.

In Iran, people are free to express their views. Every day, some people criticize the policies of the government.

Criticism in a time of war is essential to the maintenance of any kind of democratic government.

I’m an elected official so I can talk at any time or any place, light or dark.

If you have an open society that what happens—people say things and they criticize you.

It is only in the freest of nations that people can not only criticize the government, fairly or unfairly, but in extraordinarily few—only the greatest—do the negative criticisms get very wide distribution. Look for the nation where their media are full of criticisms, and there you will find a nation sufficiently free and confident to consider possible improvement from any and all sources.

The First Amendment was specifically designed for citizens to insult politicians. Libel laws were written to protect law students speaking out on political issues from getting called whores by Oxycontin addicts.

In order to have a society in which public issues can be openly and vigorously debated, it is not necessary to allow the brutalization of innocent victims.

Normally, the opposition gets more media space and even the people find it interesting to listen to voices against the government of the day.

A function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it invites a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have profound unsettling effects as it passes for acceptance of an idea.

Free discussion is the only necessary Constitution.

I don't believe the President of the United States should debate with anybody.

The public use of man's reason must always be free, and it alone can cause enlightenment.

No man ought to be hindered saying or writing what he pleases on the conduct of those who undertake the management of national affairs, in which all are concerned, and therefore have the right to inquire, and to publish their suspicions concerning them. For if you punish the slanderer, you deter the fair inquirer.

Politics is the language through which a free society expresses itself

A free press stands as one of the great interpreters between the government and the people. To allow it to be fettered is to fetter ourselves.

The people have every right to meet in a peaceful manner and express and ventilate their grievance and criticize the policy and actions of any civilized Government.

Free speech is the foundation of an open and liberal democracy from college campuses to the White House.

Part of what's great about America, and Canada as well, is that we can talk about our political leaders in public.

America's founders knew the importance of allowing the people to speak critically about government actions.

Criticism, any amount, we welcome it. Come, let's have a discussion - in Parliament, all the better.

Think about it: If you were publicly branded a racist on an issue of public debate, might you not next time hesitate to speak out, write your elected representatives or go to a meeting? That's a chilling effect - and undermines the First Amendment.

American democracy is greater with free speech and open dialogue.

Our democracy works because the parties air and debate their differences in public.