Hillary Clinton Quotes

We are Americans, We have the right to participate and debate any administration.

I'm sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and disagree with this administration, somehow you're not patriotic, and we should stand up and say, "We are Americans and we have the right to debate and disagree with any administration!"

The right to insult members of the government is inviolable.

The people have every right to meet in a peaceful manner and express and ventilate their grievance and criticize the policy and actions of any civilized Government.

The foundation of our democracy is the ability to have a debate about any subject. That is why I am so committed to defending free speech.

We have an absolute right in a democracy to argue about a war.

In a free country every man thinks he has a concern in all public matters,--that he has a right to form and a right to deliver an opinion on them. This it is that fills countries with men of ability in all stations.

It is important for us to be able to meet and greet the people that we serve. And if we start having police presence everywhere we go, it's going to create a chilling effect on discourse, and it creates an incredible assault on the democratic process.

In Iran, people are free to express their views. Every day, some people criticize the policies of the government.

In a democracy one must have the right to express oneself and that's what I do, even if it displeases.

Democracy affords debate, discussion and dissent.

If there is liberty, if there is democracy, in this country, it will stand or fall with the right of the minority to express to the full force of language its opposition in public to the policies of the government. And it will stand or fall with the courage of the minority so to express itself.

We have a great nation to help govern. We who are citizens of this great republic are favored children, yet we are all the time complaining; but that is one of the inalienable privileges of an American to complain about his neighbor and government-always crying for a change. But, with all of its faults, this is the best government for man on the face of the earth

In most of the countries where the people don’t like their government, we are now allowed to ask whether people like their government.

Joe and I are still very aware of the fact that we live in a country where he criticised the government and lived another day. That trumps all. To paraphrase Churchill, democracy is the worst form of government apart from all the other forms of government. You constantly have to fight for it; you have to keep your government honest.

Freedom means the right of people to assemble, organize, and debate openly.

America's founders knew the importance of allowing the people to speak critically about government actions.

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

American democracy is greater with free speech and open dialogue.

When I hear President Trump suggest policy ideas that run counter to American ideals, I speak out. In the same vein, when my constituents disagree with me, I welcome and champion their right to speak out.

Freedom to speak and write about public questions is as important to the life of our government as is the heart to the human body. In fact, this privilege is the heart of our government. If that heart be weakened, the result is debilitation; if it be stilled, the result is death.

There is no democracy without dissent.

Curtailment of free speech is rationalized on grounds that a more compelling American tradition forbids criticism of the government when the nation is at war... Nothing can be more destructive of our fundamental democratic traditions than the vicious effort to silence dissenters.

The reason that democracies always defeat dictatorships is because they're open to debate. We should never allow Washington to say, 'Shut up, get in line and wave the flag.'

Surely, if it is the right of the people to "alter or abolish," it is their right to criticize, even severely, policies they believe destructive of the ends for which government has been established. This principle, in the Declaration of Independence, suggests that true patriotism lies in supporting the values the country is supposed to cherish: equality, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. When our government compromises, undermines, or attacks those values, it is being unpatriotic.