The Hand That Rules The Press, The

Our Dangers, As It Seems To Me, Are Not From The Outrageous But From The Conforming; Not From Those Who Rarely And Under The Lurid Glare Of Obloquy Upset Our Moral Complaisance, Or Shock Us With Unaccustomed Conduct, But From Those, The Mass Of Us, Who Take Their Virtues And Their Tastes, Like Their Shirts And Their Furniture, From The Limited Patterns Which The Market Offers.

If A Community Decides That Some Conduct Is Prejudicial To Itself, And So Decides By Numbers Sufficient To Impose Its Will Upon Dissenters, I Know Of No Principle Which Can Stay Its Hand.

Each One Of Us Must In The End Choose For Himself How Far He Would Like To Leave Our Collective Fate To The Wayward Vagaries Of Popular Assemblies For Myself It Would Be Most Irksome To Be Ruled By A Bevy Of Platonic Guardians, Even If I Knew How To Choose Them, Which I Assuredly Do Not I Should Miss The Stimulus Of Living In A Society Where I Have, At Least Theoretically, Some Part In The Direction Of Public Affairs.

All Discussion, All Debate, All Dissidence Tends To Question And In Consequence, To Upset Existing Convictions; That Is Precisely Its Purpose And Its Justification.

Those Of Us Who Have Come To Years Of Discretion And More, Must Often Take To Retrospect, And Seek To Appraise The Outcome Of Our Lives.