517 Speech Quotes

We have to put a stop to the idea that it is a part of everybody's civil rights to say whatever he pleases.

Here again, there is no tabulation; for us it is left to sacrifice literary charm, and even some accuracy, in order to bring out the one great point. The cause of human sectarianism is not lack of sympathy in thought, but in speech; and this it is our not unambitious design to remedy.

The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is beside the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.

I lived with people who had varied opinions, some of whom did not accept my Nazi views. I encouraged this. If a man said something that was critical of me or my ideas, I wouldn't consider him an enemy.

I would rather be free in my mind, and be locked up in a prison cell, than to be a coward and not be able to say what I want.

You are going to use this courtroom to kill me? I am going to fight for my life one way or another. You should let me do it with words.

Thoughts, words, ideas and information, free from any bonds or restrictions, is the very concrete which pours out a foundation strong enough that upon which a house, stable and lasting, of true freedom and liberty may be built.

Political correctness is the natural continuum from the party line. What we are seeing once again is a self-appointed group of vigilantes imposing their views on others. It is a heritage of communism, but they don't seem to see this.

Nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.

Soun is noght but air ybroken, And every speche that is spoken, Loud or privee, foul or fair, In his substaunce is but air; For as flaumbe is but lighted smoke, Right so soun is air ybroke.

It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him.

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you. Now watch this drive.

My Geordie is probably just about as bad as my English.

In a free and republican government, you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude.

Remarks are not literature.

Those of you who speak only English, applaud [audience applause]. Those of you who speak only Spanish, applaud [audience applause]. [In mock incredulity] Then how do you know what I just said?

Some people think that all the equipment you need to discuss religion is a mouth.

Heavens, no! It could get subpoenaed. I can't write anything.

Sometimes people mistake the way I talk for what I am thinking.

There are more ways of outraging speech than contradiction merely.

Words and works eat not at one table.

Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.

Don't speak evil of someone if you don't know for certain, and if you do know ask yourself, why am I telling it?

The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.

The talkative man speaks from his mouth, the eloquent man speaks from his heart.

In the end it is worse to suppress dissent than to run the risk of heresy.

I like people who refuse to speak until they are ready to speak.

If someone had told me, don't say anything about Lillian Hellman because she'll sue you, it wouldn't have stopped me. It might have spurred me on.

I think, with never-ending gratitude, that the young women of today do not and can never know at what price their right to free speech and to speak at all in public has been earned.

I was a woman before I was an abolitionist. I must speak for the women.

My basic rule is to speak slowly and simply so that my audience has an opportunity to follow and think about what I am saying.

One of the basic causes for all the trouble in the world today is that people talk too much and think too little. They act impulsively without thinking. I always try to think before I talk.

I don't necessarily agree with everything I say.

All names of God remain hallowed because they have been used not only to speak of God but also to speak to him.

In order to remain silent Da-sein must have something to say.

The kings of modern thought are dumb.

Gray hairs are signs of wisdom if you hold your tongue, speak and they are but hairs, as in the young.

To be outspoken is easy when you do not wait to speak the complete truth.

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist/Unitarian, Irish/Italian/Octogenarian/Zen Buddhist, Zionist/Seventh-day Adventist, Women's Lib/Republican, Mattachine/FourSquareGospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme.

Never say more than is necessary.

Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing.

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

And truly it little matters what I say, this or that or any other thing. Saying is inventing. Wrong, very rightly wrong. You invent nothing, you think you are inventing, you think you are escaping, and all you do is stammer out your lesson, the remnants of a pensum one day got by heart and long forgotten, life without tears, as it is wept.

It is a flat'ning Thought, that the more we have seen, the less we have to say.

Remember what is unbecoming to do is also unbecoming to speak of.

This is The Tonight Show. I can't tell you too much about it, other than the fact that this program is going to go on forever.

The mind is but the subtle part of the body. You must retain great strength in your mind and words.

It is the rare fortune of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks.

Speech is human, silence is divine, yet also brutish and dead: therefore we must learn both arts.

I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you might nudge the world a little or make a poem that children will speak for you when you are dead.

I mean, look, no matter how you feel about Bush, watching him speak is difficult. It's like- it's like watching a drunk man cross an icy street.

Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.

I have been in the entertainment business some forty-three years, and I have never said anything detrimental or anything that might be construed as belittling any race or religion. I would be a sucker to do so because you can't insult the customers.

Our heritage and ideals, our code and standards - the things we live by and teach our children - are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideas and feelings.

The ability to speak exactly is intimately related to the ability to know exactly.

Let me say and not mourn: the world lives in the death of speech and sings there.

Thou art a retailer of phrases, and dost deal in remnants of remnants.

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.

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

It is our attitude toward free thought and free expression that will determine our fate. There must be no limit on the range of temperate discussion, no limits on thought. No subject must be taboo. No censor must preside at our assemblies.

A fool and his words are soon parted.

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

'Democrats cannot conceive of 'hate speech' towards Christians because, in their eyes, Christians always deserve it.'

They're [Democrats] always accusing us of repressing their speech. I say let's do it. Let's repress them. Frankly, I'm not a big fan of the First Amendment.

You know, ok. I made a few jokes - and they killed 3000 Americans. Fair trade.

Patriots always talk of dying for their country, and never of killing for their country.

As I was telling my husb- As I was telling President Bush.

Discretion of speech, is more than eloquence; and to speak agreeably to him, with whom we deal, is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.

I think the most un-American thing you can say is, 'You can't say that.'

'The way to deal with worldly people is to frighten them by repeating their scandalous whisperings aloud.'

I don't want to talk grammar, I want to talk like a lady.

'No comment' is a comment.

Speech is the small change of Silence.

I think- tide turning- see, as I remember- I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of- it's easy to see a tide turn- did I say those words?

Newspapers across the country and the world have published cartoons that have gone beyond reasonable differences of opinion and expanded into the realm of anti-Semitism.

'If our democracy is to flourish, it must have criticism; if our government is to function it must have dissent.'

A newspaper reported I spend $30,000 a year buying Paris clothes and that women hate me for it. I couldn't spend that much unless I wore sable underwear.

The one thing I do not want to be called is First Lady. It sounds like a saddle horse.

When people talk of the Freedom of Writing, Speaking, or thinking, I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more.

Let us tenderly and kindly cherish therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.

We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity...

Success is the important thing. Propaganda is not a matter for average minds, but rather a matter for practitioners. It is not supposed to be lovely or theoretically correct. I do not care if I give wonderful, aesthetically elegant speeches, or speak so that women cry. The point of a political speech is to persuade people of what we think right. I speak differently in the provinces than I do in Berlin, and when I speak in Bayreuth, I say different things than I say in the Pharus Hall. That is a matter of practice, not of theory. We do not want to be a movement of a few straw brains, but rather a movement that can conquer the broad masses. Propaganda should be popular, not intellectually pleasing. It is not the task of propaganda to discover intellectual truths.

Genuinely good remarks surprise their author as well as his audience.

'It is better not to express what one means than to express what one does not mean.'

Go on, get out. Last words are for fools who haven't said enough.

Why doesn't the fellow who says 'I'm no speechmaker' let it go at that instead of giving a demonstration?

He who knows does not speak; he who speaks does not know.

Speak only if it improves upon the silence.

Moral cowardice that keeps us from speaking our minds is as dangerous to this country as irresponsible talk. The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character.

None but the dead have free speech.

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 fear. It is our right to utter the words, 'I disagree.' We must feel at liberty to speak those words to our neighbors, our clergy, our educators, our news media, our lawmakers and, above all, to the one among us we elect President.