David Ignatius Quotes

I can't emphasize how important free speech is to a liberal and free democracy.

The right to free speech is critical to our democracy.

Americans have fought and died around the globe to protect the right of all people to express their views, even views that we profoundly disagree with. We do not do so because we support hateful speech, but because our founders understood that without such protections, the capacity of each individual to express their own views and practice their own faith may be threatened. We do so because in a diverse society, efforts to restrict speech can quickly become a tool to silence critics and oppress minorities.

Criticism of government finds sanctuary in several portions of the 1st Amendment. It is part of the right of free speech. It embraces freedom of the press.

I think that, as Americans, we should never forget that when we tamper with freedom of speech, it is a very sensitive issue that affects all of our constitutional rights and privileges.

If Thomas Jefferson had heard us, he probably would have said, 'We shouldn't have free speech.'

No one respects the First Amendment more than I do. People have a right to express their concerns and their hopes and dreams to their government.

Today I am here to defend the right to offend within the bounds of the law.

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

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

Honestly, this country was built on freedom of speech and freedom of expression, and when you can no longer do that, then it is no longer based on that, you know.

Individuals have a right to freedom of speech.

People have the right to say what they want to.

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

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.

People may be due the benefits of a democratic electoral process. But in the United States, content curators appropriately have a First Amendment right to present their content as they see fit.

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

Chinese citizens have never had the right to really express their opinions; in the constitution it says you can, but in the real world it is more dangerous. In the west people think it's a right they're born with. Here it's a right given by the government, and one that's not really practised.

A simple way to determine whether the right to dissent in a particular society is being upheld is to apply the town square test: Can a person walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm? If he can, then that person is living in a free society. If not, it's a fear society.

If government were free to suppress disfavored speech by preventing potential speakers from being paid, there would not be much left of the 1st Amendment.

Implicit in the history of the 1st Amendment is the rejection of obscenity as utterly without redeeming social importance.

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

The Constitution does not allow the unnecessary trammeling of free expression, even for the noblest of purposes.

That the people have a right to freedom of speech, and of writing and publishing their sentiments; therefore, the freedom of the press ought not be restrained.

The rights of free speech and free press do not carry with them the right to advocate the right to advocate the destruction of the very government that protects the freedom of an individual to express his views.