William Allen White Quotes

We cannot forget the little things we take for granted in America that remain the disdain of dictators and terrorists throughout the world.

America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome humiliation and servitude, or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of bullies.... ...Liberty will come to those who love it.

The last hope of human liberty in this world rests on us.

Everyone's gotta have a voice, to be able to speak out. Left supresses right, right supresses left, and what's left and what's right? You know? It's America. You gotta be able to speak out. That's why people came here from all over the world: to have a fair shake. Not more than somebody else - the same.

The growing tide of anti-Semitism shocks the conscious of everyone who values freedom, and the ugly, hateful acts particularly stain the character of democracies where liberty and religious freedom are supposed to be respected.

Governments that block the aspirations of their people, that steal or are corrupt, that oppress and torture or that deny freedom of expression and human rights should bear in mind that they will find it increasingly hard to escape the judgement of their own people, or where warranted, the reach of international law.

I have lived under totalitarian Communism, so I prize freedom as much as anyone and have long fought for freedom of conscience and speech.

Being born in Cuba, a country where freedom of speech is non-existent, it's startling to observe how Venezuela, where I was happily raised, is fast becoming Cuba's mirror image: Dismantling of fundamental democratic rights deserved by its people and citizens of the world.

Having lived through the transition from totalitarianism, I am acutely mindful of the need to never take for granted the basic freedoms of thought, expression and belief that democracy brings.

Nor was it only from the millions of slaves that chains had been removed; the whole nation had been in bondage; free speech had been suppressed.

To us Americans much has been given; of us much is required. With all our faults and mistakes, it is our strength in support of the freedom our forefathers loved which has saved mankind from subjection to totalitarian power.

I feel really privileged that I've been able to be an activist and a musician for over 20 years now, and I've always been able to say whatever I want. I think that's something we Americans really take for granted, but it's a big deal, and it's not something most people in the world are able to do.

The glorious spectacle of eighteen millions of people, struggling to burst their chains and be free.

Liberty resides in the rights of those people whose views we find most odious.

America is just the country that shows how all the written guarantees in the world for freedom are no protection against tyranny and oppression of the worst kind. There the politician has come to be looked upon as the very scum of society.

People have a right to say what they want without being killed. These Islamic groups have to be stopped. I just can't sit down and do nothing.

Be alert that dictators have always played on the natural human tendency to blame others and to oversimplify. And don't regard yourself as a guardian of freedom unless you respect and preserve the rights of people you disagree with to free, public, unhampered Expression

Know that as I could not submit to stoop before the sovereigns of Europe, so I came to hazard all the freedom of America, and desirous of passing the rest of my life in a country free and before settling as a citizen, to fight for liberty.

I believe in defending democracy by preserving democracy, not by descending to the use of the same weapons used in dictatorships, whether of the Nazi or Communist stripe.

Our liberty cannot depend on the good intention of those in power.

The yearning for freedom of expression is universal. There is nothing uniquely American about it at all.

If crime fighters fight crime, and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight?

Freedom of choice and free speech without fear must be defended.

I believe in it so passionately because anywhere you look in the world, where governments become too big or become authoritarian, speech and expression is one of the first fundamental freedoms to go.

We need to start standing up for freedom and liberty.