Michel de Montaigne Quotes

I have no more right to object to a man for holding a different opinion from mine than I have to differ with a man because he wears a wig and I wear my own hair; but if he takes his wig off and shakes the powder in my face, I shall consider it my duty to get quit of him as soon as possible..

The supposed right of intolerance is absurd and barbaric. It is the right of the tiger; nay, it is far worse, for tigers do but tear in order to have food, while we rend each other for paragraphs.

A rioter with a Molotov cocktail in his hands is not fighting for civil rights any more than a Klansman with a sheet on his back and mask on his face. They are lawbreakers, destroyers of constitutional rights and liberties and ultimately destroyers of a free America.

We have taken the idea of tolerance so far that we have to put up with intolerance.

I may not agree with what you have to say but I will fight you to the death for the right to fight you to the death.

Liberalism must be intolerant of every sort of intolerance.

The community which does not protect its humblest and most hated member in the free utterance of his opinions, no matter how false or hateful, is only a gang of slaves. If there is anything in the universe that can't stand discussion, let it crack.

Anyone who endorses violence, hatred or oppression is not welcome in America and never, ever will be!

People have the right to say what they want to.

Being offended by freedom of speech should never be regarded as a justification for violence.

I shall stand for freedom of thought and expression in a place where it has been trampled and penalized.

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.

There is nothing wrong with intellectual differences flowing from freedom of thought as long as such differences remain confined to intellectual debates.

Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.

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.

Any terrorism is an attack on libertarian values.

For me, Westernization is not about consuming fanciful goods; it's about a system of free speech, democracy, egalitarianism and respect for the people's rights and dignity.

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

In America the majority raises formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion; within these barriers an author may write what he pleases, but woe to him if he goes beyond them.

I don't think anyone should be banned. If you don't like a book, set it aside.

We are a pluralist civilisation because we allow mosques to be built in our countries, and we are not going to stop simply because Christian missionaries are thrown into prison in Kabul. If we did so, we, too, would become Taliban.

Whenever we take away the liberties of those whom we hate we are opening the way to loss of liberty for those we love.

Every adult is free to choose his own religion, but fanaticism has to be fought lest freedom perish.

Any open society that tolerates intolerance, sees tolerance disappear and the tolerant along with it.

The best way to deal with the neo-Nazi movements is not to overreact and curtail their free speech rights which would make you no better than they are.