It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably gracious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

It does not take a majority of prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.

When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, butt in favors - When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You may know that your society is doomed.

Let us remind ourselves that it is ordinary people – men and women, boys and girls – that make the world a special place.

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.

One man thinks himself the master of others but remains more of a slave than they are.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

A free press can of course be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom it will never be anything but bad. . . Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better, whereas enslavement is a certainty of the worse.

Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound.

He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.

Conscientious objectors to vaccination should stand alone, if need be, against the whole world, in defense of their conviction.

Either you will control your government, or government will control you.

It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. . . . I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it.

When even one American, who has done nothing wrong, is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth, then all Americans are in peril.

History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.

I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.

The day will soon come when I will show the world that the transmission of power and speech without the aid of any wires is possible.

When angry, count to ten before you speak; if very angry, one hundred.

The truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is dull without it.

Some people’s idea of free speech is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage.

The right to free speech is more important than the content of the speech.

Great wisdom is generous, petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech in cantankerous.

It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance.

We shall soon be in a world in which a man may be howled down for saying that two and two make four, in which people will persecute the heresy of calling a triangle a three-sided figure, and hang a man for maddening a mob with the news that grass is green.