Robert G. Ingersoll Quotes

I always think the true test of free speech is when someone says something you don't like.

Be alert that dictators have always played on the natural human tendency to blame others and to oversimplify. And don't regard yourself as a guardian of freedom unless you respect and preserve the rights of people you disagree with to free, public, unhampered Expression

I don't believe in this idea of, 'That's hate speech, stop it.'

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

Fascist movements kill off their critics, literally or metaphorically, while democratic movements value, invite and even welcome criticism.

A simple way to determine whether the right to dissent in a particular society is being upheld is to apply the town square test: Can a person walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm? If he can, then that person is living in a free society. If not, it's a fear society.

It is worse to suppress dissent than to run the risk of heresy.

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.

Freedom of speech and thought matters, especially when it is speech and thought with which we disagree. The moment the majority decides to destroy people for engaging in thought it dislikes, thought crime becomes a reality.

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.

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

There must be freedom for all to live, to think, to worship, no book, no avenue must be closed.

The best way to kill anything un-American is to drag it out into the open; because anything un-American cannot live in the sunlight.

Those who want to burn books are either afraid of the ideas contained within the covers or they haven't the courage to stand up for the views which they themselves profess to hold.

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

This nation will survive, this state will prosper, the orderly business of life will go forward if only men can speak in whatever way given them to utter what their hearts hold—by voice, by posted card, by letter or by press. Reason never has failed men. Only force and repression have made the wrecks in the world.

Democracy depends on the idea that we hold each others’ right to express ourselves and be heard above our own desire to always get the outcomes we want. You can’t impose tolerance top-down.

Freedom of ideas and communications is one of the things we are fighting for, and our enemies are fighting against.

Hate speech and freedom of speech are two different things.

How odd that the proponents of free expression think 'free' only applies to them.

Freedom of choice and free speech without fear must be defended.

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.

The Left sees no place for differing opinions.

Honestly, this country was built on freedom of speech and freedom of expression, and when you can no longer do that, then it is no longer based on that, you know.