John Dickerson Quotes

There are still people that have been held for human rights that shouldn't be held for just speaking their mind.

The questioning is a stupid formality aimed exclusively at preventing us from speaking at the demonstration.

The most repressive societies have always restricted speech the most — and when people are finally able to speak, they often call for change.

Locking up dissenters does not reduce dissent - it fosters it.

I won't stop making videos and exercising my freedom of speech.

My ideas are threatening to the government.

If Mumia Abu-Jamal has nothing important to say, why are so many powerful people trying to shut him up?

Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.

Free speech isn't dead in Germany and Italy, merely the speakers.

We should be very skeptical of people who want to place limits on how we express ourselves.

One of the strange things about violent and authoritarian regimes is they don't like the glare of negative publicity. If you can make them sufficiently uncomfortable, they frequently respond by doing what you need them to do in the spirit of setting people free or ceasing arrests, which has worked time and time again with PEN.

I have had fatwas issued against me, some three in Bangladesh and another five in India. I will not be cowed by these threats and shall fight for my rights.

The more words we are allowed to take, the freer we become. If our mouth is banned, then we attempt to assert ourselves through gestures, even objects. They are more difficult to interpret, and take time before they arouse suspicion.

By placing discretion in the hands of an official to grant or deny a license, such a statute creates a threat of censorship that by its very existence chills free speech.

If I was afraid of being killed, I would never speak out against the government.

Censorship is a strange situation. There was times when people would burn books because they didn't like what people were doing.

So I decided the only place I can speak to the world is from outside Israel.

I shall stand for freedom of thought and expression in a place where it has been trampled and penalized.

In England, you're allowed to have an opinion - as long as it comes out of your mouth.

What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.

Free speech is a valuable commodity, which we preserve and protect, but there quite rightly is restriction on free speech in the best interest of the good order of the community and common sense.

There's several ways of saying what's on your mind. And in states and counties where it ain't too healthy to talk too loud, speak your mind, or even vote like you want to, folks have found other ways of getting the word around. One of the mainest ways is by singing.

People have a right to criticize.

You can't cheer when political officials punish the expression of views you dislike and then expect to be taken seriously when you wrap yourself in the banner of free speech in order to protest state punishment of views you like and share.

But why shouldn't I speak out? Don't you speak out in this country?