Right to Dissent Quotes

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

Why should freedom of speech and freedom of the press be allowed? Why should a government which is doing what it believes is right allow itself to be criticized? It would not allow opposition by lethal weapons. Ideas are much more fatal things than guns.

You know why there's a Second Amendment? In case the government fails to follow the first one.

Laws alone cannot secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be a spirit of tolerance in the entire population.

When the government violates the people's rights, insurrection is ... the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties.

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

For if Men are to be precluded from offering their Sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences, that can invite the consideration of Mankind, reason is of no use to us; the freedom of Speech may be taken away, and, dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter.

The Liberty of Conscience and of the Press cannot be cancelled, abridged, restrained, or modified by any authority of the United States

Freedom of religion, as the Founding Fathers saw it, was not just the right to associate oneself with a certain denomination but the right to disassociate without penalty.

Free speech, free press, free religion, the right of free assembly, yes, the right of petition—well, they are still radical ideas.

A community has not ceased to be essentially law-abiding merely because it refuses to practice literal obedience. There is such a thing as orderly disobedience to a statute, a disobedience which is open, frankly avowed, and in conformity with the general sense of what is reasonable

The right to dissent is one of the great and cherished freedoms that we enjoy by reason of the excellent accident of our American births.

In order to enable and encourage a representative of the publick to discharge his publick trust with firmness and success, it is indispensably necessary that he should enjoy the fullest liberty of speech, and that he should be protected from the resentment of everyone, however powerful, to whom the exercise of that liberty may occasion offence

In general, writers shouldn't be killed for what they write, though I can think of exceptions.

I'm not interested in censorship. I like the First Amendment very much.

If there is liberty, if there is democracy, in this country, it will stand or fall with the right of the minority to express to the full force of language its opposition in public to the policies of the government. And it will stand or fall with the courage of the minority so to express itself.

Free speech is the bedrock of liberty and a free society. And yes, it includes the right to blaspheme and offend.

Freedom of speech is freedom above all for those whose views you dislike most.

No one respects the First Amendment more than I do. People have a right to express their concerns and their hopes and dreams to their government.

One of the great rights as an American citizen is freedom of speech, one of the things that makes this country what it is.

To become self-aware, people must be allowed to hear a plurality of opinions and then make up their own minds. They must be allowed to say, write and publish whatever they want. Freedom of expression is the most basic, but fundamental, right. Without it, human beings are reduced to automatons.

It seems that the right of freedom of speech that was enshrined in numerous constitutions is now under attack by religious institutions.

Freedom of opinion is a valuable asset in a democracy.

Freedom of expression is very important.

When people fear surveillance, whether it exists or not, they grow afraid to speak their minds and hearts freely to their government or to anyone else.