Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
You can support someone's right to speak while strongly disagreeing with their message.
In plain terms
Defend free speech even when you hate what is said.
What can you take from it?
Protect rights even when attacking ideas.

Where it applies

  • debate
  • policy
  • activism

Putting it to work

  • defend dissent
  • separate person from idea
  • uphold principles

Questions to consider

  • Can you defend speech you hate?
  • Where do you draw the line?

Another view

People often struggle to separate rights from opinions.

More from Tom Stoppard

  1. When someone disagrees with you on a moral point you assume that he is one step behind in his thinking, and he assumes that he has gone one step ahead. But I t…

    Permalink to quote #4
  2. The House of Lords, an illusion to which I have never been able to subscribe - responsibility without power, the prerogative of the eunuch throughout the ages.

    Permalink to quote #6
  3. My whole life is waiting for the questions to which I have prepared answers.

    Permalink to quote #3

Related quotes

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

    VoltaireVoltaire quote #99
  2. How any human being ever has had the impudence to speak against the right to speak, is beyond the power of my imagination. Here is a man who speaks - who exerc…

    Robert G. IngersollRobert G. Ingersoll quote #119
  3. 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…

    Natalie MerchantNatalie Merchant quote #1