James C. Scott Quotes

Nobody will keep the thing he hears to himself, and nobody will repeat just what he hears and no more.

The most powerful force in the universe is gossip.

Gossip, unlike river water, flows both ways.

If it were not for a goodly supply of rumors, half true and half false, what would the gossips do?

Freedom of expression must be considered sacred and thought can only be corrected by counter thought.

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.

Free speech is life itself.

Think 'free speech,' not 'free beer.'

Gossip, public, private, social - to fight against it either by word or pen seems, after all, like fighting with shadows. Everybody laughs at it, protests against it, blames and despises it; yet everybody does it, or at least encourages others in it: quite innocently, unconsciously, in such a small, harmless fashion - yet we do it. We must talk about something, and it is not all of us who can find a rational topic of conversation, or discuss it when found.

The world of rumors and gossip is a world of wish fulfillment. And one of the things that gives volume and amplitude to a rumor is that it satisfies people's dreams and expectations about the world...

Speak, speak, speak, & remember that whenever anyone's liberty to speak is denied, your liberty is denied also, & your place is where the attack is.

To speak behind others' backs is the ventilator of the heart.

I think there's a lot of benefit in letting people vent. When I was on the Manchester Evening News, we got 500 letters a day, and part of my job as editor was to edit them. And I thought that was one of the best things in the newspaper, and it was instituted by an editor known as Big Tom, who said 'this is the voice of the people.' And he was quite right.

As long as men are free to speak, a small, rational minority will always prevail over an irrational majority.

A system of limitless individual choices, with respect to communications, is not necessarily in the interest of citizenship and self-government.

Never speak ill of yourself, your friends will always say enough on that subject.

It is only before those who are glad to hear it, and anxious to spread it, that we find it easy to speak ill of others.

In the most civilized and progressive countries freedom of discussion is recognized as a fundamental principle.

You can't speak openly about everything.

I believe in freedom of expression, I don't believe in censorship.

Democracy is about criticism.

I'm sure men have their own ways of trying to demean one another, but women can be very gossipy and judgmental, and that doesn't help.

An emperor knows how to govern when poets are free to make verses, people to act plays, historians to tell the truth, ministers to give advice, the poor to grumble at taxes, students to learn lessons aloud, workmen to praise their skill and seek work, people to speak of anything, and old men to find fault with everything.

Gossip is only the lack of a worthy memory.

The greatest power of the mass media is the power to ignore. The worst thing about this power is that you may not even know you're using it.