Luciano Pavarotti Quotes

An unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the 1st Amendment.

Our birthright under the 1st Amendment is to foster the voices of dissent.

I don't want our right to be able to speak and dissent to be taken away.

I'm not interested in censorship. I like the First Amendment very much.

I'm as keen as the next person to preserve the right to free speech.

We had a responsibility to represent all people whose 1st Amendment rights were at risk

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

You cannot prevent me from talking. I am exercising my right to free speech.

I think the moment anybody seriously tampers with the First Amendment, you're going to see an outcry.

Everyone has a right to speak out.

People have the right to say what they want to.

Free speech is the cornerstone to every right we have.

I try to do that in this book without preaching - to try to do as you just said that you really have to defend the First Amendment rights of everybody.

We can never intimidate and discourage the people who voice their words with courage. The essence of freedom rests precisely here - in the freedom of expression of the people. And we must protect it.

I think Thomas Jefferson would have said the more speech, the better.

Free speech means the right to shout 'theatre' in a crowded fire.

One who comes to the Court must come to adore, not to protest. That's the new gloss on the 1st Amendment.

Advocates of 'free speech' often repeat the mantra that the best response to bad speech is more and better speech, not the suppression of the bad stuff.

The 1st Amendment protects the right to speak, not the right to spend.

The First Amendment was designed to allow for disruption of business as usual. It is not a quiet and subdued amendment or right.

... not likely to be read if left alone, but, if persecuted, it will be generally read. Every man in the United States will think it a duty to buy a copy, in vindication of his right to buy, and read what he pleases.

How can that popular will express itself except by meetings, by speeches, by publications, by petitions, and by addresses to the representatives of the people? Any man who seeks to set a limit upon those rights, whether in war or peace, aims a blow at the most vital part of our government.... And before this great fundamental right [freedom of speech] every other must, if necessary, give way, for in no other manner can representative government be preserved.

Prior restraints on speech and publication are the most serious and least tolerable infringement on First Amendment Rights.

Political speech is indispensable to decision-making in a democracy, and this is no less true because the speech comes from a corporation. By taking the right to speak from some and giving it to others, the Government deprives the disadvantaged person or class of the right to use speech to strive to establish worth, standing, and respect for the speaker’s voice. The Government may not by these means deprive the public of the right and privilege to determine for itself what speech and speakers are worthy of consideration. The First Amendment protects speech and speaker, and the ideas that flow from each.

Speech is an essential mechanism of democracy, for it is the means to hold officials accountable to the people. [...] The right of citizens to inquire, to hear, to speak, and to use information to reach consensus is a precondition to enlightened self-government and a necessary means to protect it. [...] By taking the right to speak from some and giving it to others, the Government deprives the disadvantaged person or class of the right to use speech to strive to establish worth, standing, and respect for the speaker’s voice. The Government may not by these means deprive the public of the right and privilege to determine for itself what speech and speakers are worthy of consideration. The First Amendment protects speech and speaker, and the ideas that flow from each.