Speaking Freely
Quotes on Rights and Freedom #44
Simone de Beauvoir • 1908—1986
“The oppressor would not be so strong if he did not have accomplices among the oppressed”
Rod Serling • 1924–1975
“A sickness known as hate; not a virus, not a microbe, not a germ — but a sickness nonetheless, highly contagious, deadly in its effects. Don’t look for it in the Twilight Zone — look for it in a mirror. Look for it before the light goes out altogether.”
Mrs Harris Goes to Paris (film) 2022
“I am not a revolutionary like you… I simply wish to be left alone”
Erwin Griswold • 1904—1994
“The right to be let alone is the underlying principle of the Constitution’s Bill of Rights.”
Ludwig Mises • 1881–1973
“The philosophy commonly called individualism is a philosophy of social cooperation and the progressive intensification of the social nexus.”
William Gaynor • 1849—1913
“There is no more dangerous man in a free country, in a democracy, than an official who thinks he is better than the laws. The good man in office should be most careful not to set a bad example or precedent for his bad successor, who will come along sooner or later.”
François Fénelon • 1651–1715
“Insults are the reasons of those who are wrong.”
Gloria Steinem • 1934–
“The point is less what we choose than that we have the power to make a choice.”
Aldous Huxley • 1894–1963
“Reality cannot be ignored except at a price; and the longer the ignorance is persisted in, the higher and more terrible becomes the price that must be paid.”
Henry Louis Gates • 1950—
“When you’re desperate and scared you scapegoat people. It exacerbates latent tendencies toward — well, toward racism or homophobia or anti-Semitism.”
Harvey Milk • 1930–1978
“Let me have my tax money go for my protection and not for my prosecution. Let my tax money go for the protection of me. Protect my home, protect my streets, protect my car, protect my life, protect my property…”
Isaac Asimov • 1920–1992
“This is an example of what those who have studied history well know: When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent.”
Eric Hoffer • 1898–1983
“The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause.”
William Gaynor • 1849–1913
“There are certain ills inherent in nature and associated living which cannot be cured but only endured, but that the worse ills are, in the words of William Graham Sumner, ‘the complicated products of all the tinkering, meddling, and blundering of social doctors.’”
Père Henri “Chocolat” 2000
“We can’t go around measuring our goodness by what we don’t do. By what we deny ourselves. What we resist. And who we exclude. I think we’ve got to measure goodness by what we embrace. What we created. And who we include.”
John Paul Stevens • 1920–2019
“Just as the right to speak and the right to refrain from speaking are complementary components of a broader concept of individual freedom, so also the individual’s freedom to choose his own creed is the counterpart of his right to refrain from accepting the creed established by the majority.”
Rev. John Leland • 1754–1841
“The notion of a Christian commonwealth should be exploded forever…Government should protect every man in thinking and speaking freely, and see that one does not abuse another.”
Leonard Read • 1898–1983
“What, actually, is the difference between communism and fascism? Both are forms of statism, authoritarianism. The only difference between Stalin’s communism and Mussolini’s fascism is an insignificant detail in organizational structure.”
Charlie Spring • Heartstopper, Season 1 Episode 8
“You don’t get to make me feel like crap anymore just because you hate yourself. So leave me alone, just leave me alone.”
The Dick van Dyke Show, “The Square Triangle,” 1963
“Don’t take away my dream. After all the government took everything else.”
Rodgers & Hammerstein • 1949
“You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear.
You’ve got to be taught from year to year.
It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear.
You’ve got to be carefully taught.”
Hannah Arendt • 1906–1975
“When evil is allowed to compete with good, evil has an emotional populist appeal that wins out unless good men and women stand as a vanguard against abuse.”
Erich Fromm • 1900–1980
“The frightened individual seeks for somebody or something to tie his self to; he cannot bear to be his own individual self any longer…”
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