Stephen Colbert Quotes

I love free speech.

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

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it.

They’re like,‘If you have an opinion against us, we’re gonna shut you down.' That’s not American. If you’re gay you should have the right to be gay in peace, and if you’re against it you should have the right to be against it in peace.

Homo-sexuals should not be censored, but neither should those who oppose their point of view. That's called free speech.

It is setting a high value upon our opinions to roast men and women alive on account of them.

Liberty is meaningless if it is only the liberty to agree with those in power.

Just as war is freedom's cost, disagreement is freedom's privilege.

The next time you get the urge to shut somebody up because they don't see the world exactly the same way you do, take a deep breath, get out your Bill of Rights, and count to the ten amendments.

Opinions cannot survive if one has no chance to fight for them.

Free societies are societies in which the right of dissent is protected.

It is easy to believe in freedom of speech for those with whom we agree.

Once you permit those who are convinced of their own superior rightness to censor and silence and suppress those who hold contrary opinions, just at that moment the citadel has been surrendered.

You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.

In fact, I would defend to the death their right to express a different point of view.

Freedom rings where opinions clash.

I'm a big advocate of freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of thought.

I'm a free speech bigot. I don't like censorship; I just don't think it's a good thing.

A free society is a place where it's safe to be unpopular.

America remains an open society in which opposing forces can surface and clash, a necessary precondition for their solution.

If, then, we truly believe in the liberty of conscience, speech and press, we must place ourselves again squarely upon the declaration of rights made by our forefathers, and defend the right of others to disagree with us, even about the beneficence of government

I want peace and am willing to fight for it.

As men are killed by fighting, the truth is lost in disputing.

Freedom of expression is the foundation of a civil society …. This will come.

Brown’s core value of promoting the free and open exchange of ideas is bedrock to our capacity to fulfill our mission as a university. This value applies not only when ideas are agreeable and aligned with our own. Protecting the right to free expression and promoting open discourse is even more essential when ideas are divergent, abhorrent or even hurtful.