Thomas Babington Macaulay Quotes

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

To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy.

Free discussion is the only necessary Constitution.

Discuss anything, argue anything, but without bitterness or hot temper.

I once said that democracy is a discussion. But real discussion is only possible where men trust one another, and honestly seek the truth. Democracy is a conversation among equals, the thinking of free people open to complete publicity—the word "parliament" has a fine meaning, if only we could give it body!

Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter.

If you have an open society that what happens—people say things and they criticize you.

We can argue and we can disagree, but we don’t need to poke our fingers in each other’s eyes in order to get our points across.

We promote pluralism, not dogma. We critique, we do not accept uncritically. We question and we debate, and over time we will separate the wheat from the chaff. We will separate the worthwhile from the misguided in all the new ideas and new voices that we hear. But we cannot do that if we close ourselves from the contrarian view, or simply suppress the views of those who would challenge the accepted and the known.

The very essence of modern life is the opportunity for people everywhere to speak, hear, persuade, change their minds, know what others are thinking, and think for themselves.

When I am contradicted it arouses my attention, not my wrath. I move toward the man who contradicts me: he is instructing me. The cause of truth ought to be common to both of us.

Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely.

Public discussion demands at least the profession of good faith.

Honest difference of views and honest debate are not disunity. They are the vital process of policy among free men.

Democracy affords debate, discussion and dissent.

I don't believe the President of the United States should debate with anybody.

If a book be false in its facts, disprove them; if false in its reasoning, refute it. But for God's sake, let us freely hear both sides if we choose.

I don’t attack people. I attack ideas. And some very good people can have some very bad ideas.

There is more than two sides. Facts are often apart from what both sides say about each other.

The greatest respect you can give your political adversaries is to give them your undivided attention. If you want them to hear you, you have to be willing to hear them.

You can’t make policy on the basis of slogans.

I think we Americans tend to put too high a value on unanimity, as if there were something dangerous and illegitimate about honest differences of opinion honestly expressed by honest men.

Nations should live in an atmosphere of self-criticism because it is healthy, but always with one heart and one mind.

When we speak freely, let us speak plainly, for plain speech is wholesome; especially, plain speech about public affairs and public men.

I have always been among those who believed that the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool, the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking. It cannot be so easily discovered if you allow him to remain silent and look wise, but if you let him speak, the secret is out and the world knows that he is a fool. So it is by the exposure of folly that it is defeated; not by the seclusion of folly, and in this free air of free speech men get into that sort of communication with one another which constitutes the basis of all common achievement.