David Souter Quotes

I live in America. I have the right to write whatever I want. And it's equaled by another right just as powerful: the right not to read it. Freedom of speech includes the freedom to offend people.

We don't have an Official Secrets Act in the United States, as other countries do. Under the First Amendment, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of association are more important than protecting secrets.

I strongly believe that we as a nation can be both secure and free.

The Democratic Party will never desert the freedoms of our people under the guise of pretending to protect them.

The balance between freedom and security is a delicate one.

It is without doubt that freedoms of the press and speech need to be protected, but there are undisputed limits to these freedoms, limits that often come into play when national security is threatened.

Equality, rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.

If a jerk burns the flag, America is not threatened, democracy is not under siege, freedom is not at risk.

The Constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself.

We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.

It's a free country and I can keep my mouth shut whenever I want.

Americans cherish our liberty and don't want government or corporations to take away our freedoms.

While the debate on the Patriot Act is far from over, it is important that all Americans continue in this dialogue and work together to ensure greater security for our nation.

In Nicaragua, liberty, equality and the rule of law were the stuff of dreams. But in Paris I discovered the value of those words.

The freedom of thought and expression is one of the most sacred rights in this country.

What I find most interesting about the U.S. is this idea of equality.

Free speech and freedom of the press are under attack in the U.K. I cannot return to England, my country, because of my journalistic work with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and at WikiLeaks. There are things I feel I cannot even write.

One of the things that bothers me most is the growing belief in the country that security is more important than freedom. It ain't.

The First Amendment does not guarantee the press a constitutional right of special access to information not available to the general public, nor does it cloak the inmate with special rights of freedom of speech.

Freedom of expression is guaranteed within the framework of Islamic and national objectives and values.

The ministry of interior may censor newspapers and ban them if they include anything that violates public security, threatens national unity, or contradicts Islam.

Freedom of the press and of religious opinion should be inviolate.

It's very easy for liberals and conservatives to agree upon liberty, but it is harder for them to agree upon equality.

The Constitution is a delusion and a snare if the weakest and humblest man in the land cannot be defended in his right to speak and his right to think as much as the strongest in the land.

My government will protect all liberties but one—the liberty to do away with other liberties.