John Adams Quotes

As long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think, free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost and science can never regress.

If we would guide by the light of reason we must let our minds be bold.

All I claim, all I plead for, is liberty of thought and expression. That is all. I do not pretend to tell what is absolutely true, but what I think is true. I do not pretend to tell all the truth..

The source of our suffering has been our timidity. We have been afraid to think....Let us dare to read, think, speak, write.

The principle itself of dogmatic religion, dogmatic morality, dogmatic philosophy, is what requires to be rooted out; not any particular manifestation of that principle. The very corner-stone of an education intended to form great minds, must be the recognition of the principle, that the object is to call forth the greatest possible quantity of intellectual power, and to inspire the intensest love of truth.

The history of intellectual growth and discovery clearly demonstrates the need for unfettered freedom, the right to think the unthinkable, discuss the unmentionable, and challenge the unchallengeable.

Freethought is respectable. Freethought is crucial. Freethought needs to be publicized.

I say, let us think. Let each one express his thought. Let us become investigators, not followers, not cringers and crawlers. If there is in Heaven an infinite being, he never will be satisfied with the worship of cowards and hypocrites.

Without free speech no search for truth is possible... no discovery of truth is useful.

Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.

No errors of opinion can possibly be dangerous in a country where opinion is left free to grapple with them.

A study of the history of opinion is a necessary preliminary to the emancipation of the mind.

I believe in a free market of ideas and not shying away from debate.

Every man must have the right fearlessly to think independently and express his opinion about what he knows, what he has personally thought about and experienced, and not merely to express with slightly different variations the opinion which has been inculcated in him.

I'm happy to have my own opinion and air it when I think it's necessary.

I am not interested in telling you what to think. My job is to show you what I think. Period.

The public use of man's reason must always be free, and it alone can cause enlightenment.

And I honor the man who is willing to sink Half his present repute for the freedom to think, And, when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak, Will risk t'other half for the freedom to speak.

Men must also be allowed the publication of their opinions, if this be done with decency and seriousness, for the learned can have no right to say that they are in possession of the truth, still less can the unlearned, unless every grave man can offer his opinions, be they what they may…

Soundness of understanding is connected with freedom of enquiry; consequently, opinion should, as far as public security will admit, be exempted from restraint.

A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

I have always believed in the marketplace of ideas.

Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it.

Wise man was he who counselled that speculation should have free course, and look fearlessly towards all the thirty-two points of the compass, whithersoever and howsoever it listed.

Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking.