6 William O. Douglas Quotes on Free speech

William O. Douglas quotes on free speech

10. Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.

13. Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience ... that hissed yesterday may applaud today, even for the same performance.

24. One who comes to the Court must come to adore, not to protest. That's the new gloss on the First Amendment.

25. A function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purposes when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have profound unsettling effects as it presses for acceptance of an idea.

33. Literature should not be suppressed merely because it offends the moral code of the censor.

42. The way to combat noxious ideas is with other ideas. The way to combat falsehoods is with truth.