The quote database

It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.

This declared indifference, but, as I must think, real, covert zeal, for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate.

When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government,--that is despotism.

On the question of liberty, as a principle, we are not what we have been.

A State cannot so deem a class of persons a stranger to its laws.

We should hold our differing opinions in mutual respect, and, having submitted them to the arbitrament of the ballot, should accept an adverse judgment with the same respect that we would have demanded of our opponents if the decision had been in our favor.

I would permit no man, no matter what his colour might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.

The fact that the liberty of the press may be abused by miscreant purveyors of scandal does not make any the less necessary the immunity of the press from previous restraint in dealing with offical misconduct.

I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will

To teach, to rule, to make, to decorate, to distribute,—these are not sex-functions: they are race-functions.

That any living woman should prefer it to home and husband, to love and motherhood, throws a fierce light on what women must have suffered for lack of freedom before.

What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people.

To the extent that a citizen's right to vote is debased, he is that much less a citizen.

The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought.

Do not admire your clothes, and then you will not be angry with the thief.

No man can rob us of our Will--no man can lord it over that!

When legislation touches freedom of thought and freedom of speech, such a tendency is a formidable enemy of the free spirit.

To make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one

You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man

To enslave men successfully and safely it is necessary to keep their minds occupied with thoughts and aspirations short of the liberty of which they are deprived.

The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave.

I would ten thousand times rather that my children should be the half-starved paupers of Ireland than to be the most pampered among the slaves of America

The war of my life had begun; and though one of God's most powerless creatures, I resolved never to be conquered.

depriving individuals of the right to choose for themselves how to conduct their intimate relationships poses a far greater threat to the values most deeply rooted in our Nation's history than tolerance of nonconformity could ever do

Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.