H. L. Mencken Quotes

Free speech is one of the most important things to me, but I think it gets confusing when it comes to offense. Because for one, just because you have the right to say anything, it doesn't mean you have to.

This is America, and everybody should have a right to say what they want to say. But I think there's a time and a place for it.

People have the absolute right to preach and to think and to say whatever they believe, and at the same time those beliefs can't be used as the basis for denying other people their equal rights and their equal freedom.

Freedom of expression comes with responsibilities, especially when it comes with serious implications for peace.

If you are living in a free society then use the freedom. What good is freedom if you do not use it.

The liberty of thinking and of publishing whatever one likes ... is the fountain-head of many evils.

This country, our tradition, permits you to be a bigot, but it also requires you to take responsibility for your bigotry. The fact that you could hide behind a mask allows you to be a bigot without being responsible.

The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions.

I believe in freedom of expression, and I believe that societies thrive when they permit freedom of expression.

The freedom to speak is meaningless without the corollary freedom to keep silent.

The last refuge of intolerance is in not tolerating the intolerant.

A man has a right to think lots of things he has no right to say.

You have a right to protest. But I don't quite understand why anybody thinks it's a good idea to deny somebody else the right to express his or her point of view.

In a democracy it is necessary that people should learn to endure having their sentiments outraged.

People have the right to say what they want to.

Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters.

I believe in the freedom of expression, unequivocally - though, as I have written before, I wish more people would understand that freedom of expression is not freedom from consequence.

Indeed, Miss Manners has come to believe that the basic political division in this country is not between liberals and conservatives but between those who believe that they should have a say in the love lives of strangers and those who do not.

Liberty has restraints but no frontiers.

If our hard-earned liberty, our desire to be irreverent of the old and to question the new, can be reduced to one, basic and indispensable right, it must be the right to free speech.

Better a thousandfold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech.

All Americans value the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press, and I believe this is essential for our continued way of life. But with this freedom comes responsibility.

It is clear that not in one thing alone, but in many ways equality and freedom of speech are a good thing.

I defend both the freedom of expression and society's right to counter it. I must pay the price for differing. It is the natural way of things.

You know, everybody believes in free speech until you start questioning them about it.