The Justification And The Purpose Of Freedom

The Greatest Danger We Face Is Not Any Particular Kind Of Thought. The Greatest Danger We Face Is Absence Of Thought.

We Should Not Forget That Our Tradition Is One Of Protest And Revolt, And It Is Stultifying To Celebrate The Rebels Of The Past ... While We Silence The Rebels Of The Present.

The Justification And The Purpose Of Freedom Of Speech Is Not To Indulge Those Who Want To Speak Their Minds. It Is To Prevent Error And Discover Truth. There May Be Other Ways Of Detecting Error And Discovering Truth Than That Of Free Discussion, But So Far We Have Not Found Them.

It Seems Fair To Say That While The Moral Standards Of The Nineteenth Century Persisted Almost Unchanged Into The Twentieth, Moral Practices Changed Sharply, And That Though The Standards Of The Nineteenth Century Persisted The Institutions That Had Sustained Them And The Sanctions That Had Enforced Them Lost Influence And Authority.

To Yearn For A Single, And Usually Simple, Explanation Of The Chaotic Materials Of The Past, To Search For A Single Thread In That Most Tangled Of All Skeins, Is A Sign Of Immaturity.