Matilda Joslyn Gage Quotes

And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about.

I've always been very liberal when it comes to people thinking for themselves.

Others indeed may talk, and write, and fight about liberty, and make an outward pretence to it; but the free-thinker alone is truly free.

You must avoid letting anyone usurp your freedom of thought in any way, whether on religious or other grounds. People must use their minds and think and there are situations where the use of the intellect is necessary so that excessive fantasy or fancy can be held in check.

Heresy is only another word for freedom of thought.

Freedom of speech and freedom of action are meaningless without freedom to think. And there is no freedom of thought without doubt.

I require no bayonets to defend the liberty of my thoughts.

All my life, I've had a fear of being told what to say, so I'm not telling people what to think. I'm encouraging them to say what they think.

A free man must not be told how to think, either by the government or by social activists. He may certainly be shown the right way, but he must not accept being forced into it.

The free exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world.

Freethought is respectable. Freethought is crucial. Freethought needs to be publicized.

Humanists recognize that it is only when people feel free to think for themselves, using reason as their guide, that they are best capable of developing values that succeed in satisfying human needs and serving human interests.

Everyone must act according to the dictates of his own reason.

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

Every individual in the church is free to think as he pleases.

To become self-aware, people must be allowed to hear a plurality of opinions and then make up their own minds. They must be allowed to say, write and publish whatever they want. Freedom of expression is the most basic, but fundamental, right. Without it, human beings are reduced to automatons.

Well, where there is freedom doubt itself must be free.

There are no dangerous thoughts; thinking itself is dangerous.

Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds.

Freedom is about a way of thinking. Freedom is about understanding that you can do anything that you want and freedom is about being able to take information and education and make it relevant to your own growth every single day. Freedom is not staying in the box. Freedom is not doing what other people want you to do.

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.

Every man must have the right fearlessly to think independently and express his opinion about what he knows, what he has personally thought about and experienced, and not merely to express with slightly different variations the opinion which has been inculcated in him.

Enlightenment values of individual freedom are manifested best in individual acts of criticism and defiance.

Liberty has never come from Government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it.

There can be no living culture in the world if you cannot criticize its foundations –- the religion. We lack the courage to ask any question about any religious issue. For example, as a Muslim, I cannot say a single word about the Prophet Moses. The Prophet Moses did not say anything to me as a Muslim, whereas the Israeli Jew can criticize Moses and all the prophets in the Torah, and he can even question the divinity of the Torah. We, in Arab society, do not understand the meaning of freedom. We say that freedom means writing an article. Freedom is much deeper than that.