Thomas Sowell Quotes

Once you permit those who are convinced of their own superior rightness to censor and silence and suppress those who hold contrary opinions, just at that moment the citadel has been surrendered.

Freedom of speech is always under attack by Fascist mentality, which exists in all parts of the world, unfortunately.

A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.

When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know, the end result is tyranny and oppression no matter how holy the motives.

Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.

Our political life is closed, and our freedoms usurped, and our people are oppressed, and fearful… if you don’t say what the ruler wants, you’re exiled beyond the sun.

Every censorship, however good its intent, degenerates inevitably into tyranny.

It was only a generation ago that we learned that the burning of books may precede the burning of people.

There are men—now in power in this country—who do not respect dissent, who cannot cope with turmoil, and who believe that the people of America are ready to support repression so long as it is done with a quiet voice and a business suit.

Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.

Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.

Whenever one tries to suppress doubt, there is tyranny.

Governments and reactionary groups resort to nationalism, victimization, and suppression to keep foreign or offending speech at bay.

It seems to me that we are living in an increasingly unfree society.

The enemies of freedom do not argue; they shout and they shoot.

The government continues to erode our freedom.

I keep attacking the villains, the know-nothings, the people who want to take our freedoms away.

They have been talking about a dictatorship and they were right because there's a dictatorship and there's a government that has been fighting that dictatorship, the dictatorship of the media.

Freedom of speech and thought matters, especially when it is speech and thought with which we disagree. The moment the majority decides to destroy people for engaging in thought it dislikes, thought crime becomes a reality.

The more laws that governments pass, the less individual freedom there is. Any student of history will tell you that. Totalitarian countries ban pretty much everything.

And why do we, who say we oppose tyranny and demand freedom of speech, allow people to go to prison and be vilified, and magazines to be closed down on the spot, for suggesting another version of history.

Many a time freedom has been rolled back - and always for the same sorry reason: fear.

Some people still believe you should just fall in line with what's going on - and that's scary. It makes a mockery of freedom of speech.

Political correctness does not legislate tolerance; it only organizes hatred.

As I speak to you today, government censors somewhere are working furiously to erase my words from the records of history. But history itself has already condemned these tactics.