But this we can say with certainty: a government and a society that silences those who dissent is one that has lost its way. This we can say: that what is essential in a free society is that there should be an atmosphere where those who wish to dissent and even to demonstrate can do so without fear of recrimination or vilification.
Henry Steele Commager (1902–1998) American historian, writer, activist
Essay (1965-12-18), “The Problem of Dissent,” Saturday Review
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Reprinted in Freedom and Order, Part 6 (1966).
Quotations about:
free society
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This college, therefore, from its earliest beginnings, has recognized and its graduates have recognized, that the purpose of education is not merely to advance the economic self-interest of its graduates. The people of California, as much if not more than the people of any other State, have supported their colleges and universities and their schools because they recognize how important it is to the maintenance of a free society that its citizens be well educated.
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) American politician, author, journalist, US President (1961–63)
Speech (1962-03-23), University of California, Berkeley
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They who clamor loudest for freedom are often the ones least likely to be happy in a free society. The frustrated, oppressed by their shortcomings, blame their failure on existing restraints. Actually, their innermost desire is for an end to the “free for all.” They want to eliminate free competition and the ruthless testing to which the individual is continually subjected in a free society.
Eric Hoffer (1902–1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 2, ch. 5, § 28 (2.5.28) (1951)
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The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum.
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) American politician, diplomat, statesman
Speech (1961-01-18), US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Washington, DC
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Statement given by Stevenson after his nomination by President-elect Kennedy to be ambassador to the United Nation, which office he held until his death in 1965. The speech (or this passage) is often cited to the New York Times coverage of it the following day, though often mistakenly dating it in 1962.
In context, he is addressing criticisms of the UN as a "debating society," noting that the US Congress often serves as such, from which he extends this principle.
Without a free press there can be no free society. That is axiomatic. However, freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means to the end of a free society. The scope and nature of the constitutional guarantee of the freedom of the press are to be viewed and applied in that light.
Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American jurist, teacher; US Supreme Court Justice (1939–62)
Pennekamp v. Florida, 328 U.S. 331, 354–356 (1946) [concurring]
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An extract of this quote ("Freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means to the end of [achieving] a free society") was apparently written in a New York Times article of 1953-11-28 (but not Frankfurter's essay of that date) and is often cited to that article.
My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) American politician, diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-10-07), “Safeguards Against Communism,” Masonic Temple, Detroit, Michigan
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