Free society Quotes

“If we wish to preserve a free society, it is essential that we recognize that the desirability of a particular object is not sufficient justification for the use of coercion.”

“Social responsibility is a fundamentally subversive doctrine" in a free society, and have said that in such a society, "there is one and only one social responsibility of business–to use it resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.”

“Without free speech one cannot claim other liberties, or defend them when they are attacked. Without free speech one cannot have a democratic process, which requires the statement and testing of policy proposals and party platforms. Without free speech one cannot have a due process at law, in which one can defend oneself, accuse, collect and examine evidence, make a case or refute one. Without free speech there cannot be genuine education and research, enquiry, debate, exchange of information, challenges to falsehood, questioning of governments, proposal and examination of opinion. Without free speech there cannot be a free press, which...is necessary...as one of the two essential estates of a free society (the other being an independent judiciary).”

“It is passing strange that our philosophers of the Revolutionary period should have formed their conception of a free society by reference to societies where everyone was not free - where, in fact, the vast majority were not free. It is no less strange that they never stopped to ask whether perhaps the characters which they so much admired were not made possible by the existence of a class which was not free. Rousseau, in whose philosophy were many things, was fully conscious of this difficulty: "Must we say that liberty is possible only on a basis of slavery? Perhaps we must.”

“I think the enemy is self-censorship. In a free society the biggest danger is that you're afraid to the point where you censor yourself.”

“If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”

“The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum.”

“The most important element of a free society, where individual rights are held in the highest esteem, is the rejection of the initiation of violence.”

“In many respects, the United States is a great country. Freedom of speech is protected more than in any other country. It is also a very free society.”

“We can't just have mainstream behavior on television in a free society, we have to make sure we see the whole panorama of human behavior.”