John F. Kennedy Quotes

Deliberation and debate is the way you stir the soul of our democracy.

And we have got to fight [communism] with something better, not try to conceal the thinking of our own people. They are part of America. And even if they think ideas that are contrary to ours, their right to say them, their right to record them, and their right to have them at places where they are accessible to others is unquestioned, or it isn't America.

America's Founders were committed to a wide-open public forum in which all voices and perspectives could have a chance of being heard.

In America we don’t apologize for opinions, that’s why we have a 1st Amendment. If we can’t discuss even controversial opinions in the pages of our newspapers, where are we going to do it?

Discussion is the bedrock of American democracy.

Democracy affords debate, discussion and dissent.

We hold these truths to be self-evident,” begins the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. Who holds these truths? Americans hold these truths. Who are Americans? People who adhere to these truths. National identity and political principle were inseparable.

The foundation of our democracy is the ability to have a debate about any subject. That is why I am so committed to defending free speech.

There's no question that Ben Shapiro loves to provoke college students.

America is the longest argument in the world.

I can criticize your religion all I want, and you can criticize mine. I don't like this whole climate of, 'You can't ever say anything bad about the group I'm in, cause every group is untouchable.' We can all criticize each other and engage in debate all we want.

But I'm here to say that when we do speak out, we're going to do so because the United States of America does believe, and will always stand for, a certain set of universal values.

If human rights are supposed to have any meaning, then they have to be discussed openly.

There is nothing more wonderful than freedom of speech.

The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum.

We are a new nation conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. That's what makes us Americans. When we sign onto that belief, we sign onto the core American identity, and that's very deep in us.

If you're also in the arena and you're putting your ideas out and you're owning them and you're saying "I disagree with you about this and that, I think you've got this wrong" - then not only do I invite that, I freaking love that. I love that. I'm an academic. I'm hardwired for a good debate.

I believe in the principles that built America, I believe in the Constitution.

America, to me, should be shouting all the time, a bunch of shouting voices, most of them wrong, some of them nuts, but please, not just one droning glamourous reasonable voice.

I'm definitely not the kind of person who wants to push anything down anyone's throat, so I don't really mind what the outcome of the conversation is but just that people are talking about it is very important to me.

It was a democracy in the truest and most frustrating and most rewarding sense of the word. Anybody could come in and say, "You know, I'm just not cool with that." We'd be like, "Who's that?" "Oh, I was just cleaning the trailers." It was nuts.

Profound insights arise only in debate, with a possibility of counterargument, only when there is a possibility of expressing not only correct ideas but also dubious ideas.

Freedom to speak and write about public questions is as important to the life of our government as is the heart to the human body. In fact, this privilege is the heart of our government. If that heart be weakened, the result is debilitation; if it be stilled, the result is death.

All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.

If America has a civic religion, the First Amendment is its central article of faith.