Walter Lippmann Quotes

A respect for the rights of other people to determine their forms of government and their economy will not weaken our democracy. It will inevitably strengthen it.

Some people will never live comfortably in a modern liberal democracy.

Our showy celebration of, and absolute insistence upon, individual autonomy and unconstrained diversity pushes those by nature least equipped to live comfortably in a liberal democracy not to the limits of their tolerance, but to their intolerant extremes.

There is nothing more American than acknowledging that even if we don't agree politically, even if we don't agree with the president, even if we don't like each other, all of us have the same rights.

I greet you all in the name of peace, democracy and freedom for all.

There is no right in the world not to be offended. That right simply doesn’t exist. In a free society, an open society, people have strong opinions, and these opinions very often clash. In a democracy, we have to learn to deal with this.

A free and open society is an on-going conflict, interrupted periodically by compromises.

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.

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 the United States, because we are a nation of laws, you can lose an election and keep your life. In the United States, you can lose an election where you can disagree with our leaders or our government, and you won't lose your business; you won't lose your family, and you won't lose your freedom.

I wish more people would take a stand and stand up for the principles on which this country was founded.

I fundamentally believe in freedom and human rights.

When I think about America, I think about freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion. It's a peaceful country.

It is nice to be an American and to be able to have an opinion.

This is America, and everybody should have a right to say what they want to say. But I think there's a time and a place for it.

Believing in and practising the principles of the rule of law is, with our liberty and democracy, among the most powerful weapons we have. It is less effective if we blur its clarity and we should do this as sparingly as possible.

To view the opposition as dangerous is to misunderstand the basic concepts of democracy. To oppress the opposition is to assault the very foundation of democracy.

Democracy requires that if you who don't like the outcome of elections you have to tolerate it and then pursue your interest the next time around.

And the principle which distinguishes democracy from all other forms of government is that in a democracy the opposition not only is tolerated as constitutional but must be maintained because it is in fact indispensable.

Labour's constitutional blueprint is nothing less than a plan for the destruction of UK democracy.

Almost all the civil liberty now enjoyed in the world owes its origin to the principles of the christian religion.

In a free government, the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. It consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other in the multiplicity of sects.

Law matters, because it keeps us safe, because it protects our most fundamental rights and freedoms, and because it is the foundation of our democracy.

Islam is not an excuse for thwarting democracy.

One has to strive for a very open liberal society.