The public use of a man's reason must be free at all times, and this alone can bring enlightenment among men...

A public can only arrive at enlightenment slowly. Through revolution, the abandonment of personal despotism may be engendered and the end of profit-seeking and…

Only the descent into the hell of self-knowledge can pave the way to godliness.

There will always be some people who think for themselves, even among the self-appointed guardians of the great mass who, after having thrown off the yoke of i…

von Humboldt (seeing a newspaper containing slanderous falsehoods against Jefferson on the President's desk) : Why do you not have the fellow hung who dares to…

Of what use is freedom of speech to those who fear to offend?

There is one tradition in America I am proud to inherit. It is our first freedom and the truest expression of our Americanism: the ability to dissent without f…