Suppressed Speech Quotes

Thought that is silenced is always rebellious.

There can be no doubt that criticism in time of war is essential to the maintenance of any kind of democratic government ... too many people desire to suppress criticism simply because they think that it will give some comfort to the enemy to know that there is such criticism. If that comfort makes the enemy feel better for a few moments, they are welcome to it as far as I am concerned, because the maintenance of the right of criticism in the long run will do the country maintaining it a great deal more good than it will do the enemy, and will prevent mistakes which might otherwise occur.

So many words get lost. They leave the mouthand lose their courage, wandering aimlessly until they are swept into the gutter like dead leaves. On rainy days you can hear their chorus rushing past.

When you can't ask a question of your leaders anymore, that gets scary.

What cannot be said above all must not be silenced but written.

The censor's sword pierces deeply into the heart of free expression.

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.

It's the suppression of the word that gives it the power, the violence, the viciousness.

Ignorant free speech often works against the speaker. That is one of several reasons why it must be given rein instead of suppressed.

Of what use is freedom of speech to those who fear to offend?

Censorship has had a long history in the western world. Book banning is as old as books.

In a dictatorship there is no choice, the elections are controlled, the police are the military, fear equals control, speech is suppressed, the economy is looted, the people are slaves.

The orthodoxy of America is as rigid as that of Soviet Russia. There is one point of view allowed. If you start a conversation from another point of view, the words dry in your mouth.

Better a thousandfold abuse of speech than a denial of free speech. The abuse dies in a day, but the denial slays the life of the people, and entombs the hope of the race.

I don't think you can bury words. I think the more you try to dismiss them, the more power you give to them, the more circulation they have.

Where there is official censorship it is a sign that speech is serious.

In our society, more and more, people are running around offended by syllables, even. People are afraid to say anything. It reminds me of the days of the old Soviet Union, where people would have to go into the bathroom to say what they were really thinking.

when one never speaks, one has nothing to say because one has too much to say.

You say that freedom of utterance is not for time of stress, and I reply with the sad truth that only in time of stress is freedom of utterance in danger? Only when free utterance is suppressed is it needed, and when it is needed it is most vital to justice.

Many people in the intellectual elite are very scared of shouting. They insist on very quiet murmurs.

In the life of the human spirit, words are action, much more so than many of us realize who live in countries where freedom of expression is taken for granted. The leaders of totalitarian nations understand this very well. The proof is that words are precisely the action for which dissidents in those countries are being persecuted.