Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.
To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.
- Topic: Communication, Freedom, Speech
- Location: Arches National Park
- Photo: Jeffrey Benjamin
More Quotes from Frederick Douglass
The thought of only being a creature of the present and the past was troubling. I longed for a future, too, with hope in it. The desire to be free, awakened my determination to act, to think, and to speak.
The simplest truths often meet the sternest resistance and are slowest in getting general acceptance.
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.
More Quotes from Arches National Park
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When one remains silent in the face of oppression, one is on the side of the oppressor.
On his tongue they pour sweet dew, and from his mouth flow gentle words.
A fool contributes nothing worth hearing and takes offense to everything.
I did not seek greatness. I only sought to fulfill my duties.
I shall work for the Republican party and call on all women to join me, precisely…for what that party has done and promises to do for women, nothing more, nothing less.
For you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you.
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
Never cross a man, not afraid to die.
Freedom of information is a fundamental human right...for a nation that is afraid to let its people to judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
The aim of art, the aim of a life can only be to increase the sum of freedom and responsibility to be found in every man and in the world. It cannot, under any circumstances, be to reduce or suppress that freedom, even temporarily.
The greatest tyrannies are always perpetuated in the name of the noblest causes.
Let us remind ourselves that it is ordinary people – men and women, boys and girls – that make the world a special place.
Either you will control your government, or government will control you.
The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.
Speech is civilization itself. The word, even the most contradictory word, preserves contact—it is silence which isolates.
Man's tongue is soft, and bone doth lack; yet a stroke therewith may break a man's back.
Teach your child to hold his tongue; he'll learn fast enough to speak.
Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.
The right to free speech is more important than the content of the speech.
Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.
Great wisdom is generous, petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech in cantankerous.
Listen with ears of tolerance, see through the eyes of compassion, speak with language of love.
