The History Of Free Speech

"I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies another this right makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it."

-- Thomas Paine, 1783



"Free speech exercised both individually and through a free press, is a necessity in any country where people are themselves free."

-- Theodore Roosevelt, 1918



"The truth is found when men are free to pursue it."

-- Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936



"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."

-- George Orwell, 1945

From Bob Harris:

"Any time we deny any citizen the full exercise of his constitutional rights, we are weakening our own claim to them."

-- Dwight David Eisenhower, 1963



"What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant."

-- Robert F. Kennedy, 1964



"Go fuck yourself."

-- Dick Cheney, 2004