Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard.

When the Supreme Court moved to Washington in 1800, it was provided with no books, which probably accounts for the high quality of early opinions.

We can afford no liberties with liberty itself.

Microbes are doing things we didn't even know they could do 10 years ago.

If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act.

It is in the country's best interest that Tony Blair rather than Michael Howard should form the next government.

It is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.

The day that this country ceases to be free for irreligion, it will cease to be free for religion.

The places that are most likely to grow trees for carbon sequestration are places where trees aren't growing now.

The petitioner's problem is to avoid Scylla without being drawn into Charybdis.

Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard.

Men are more often bribed by their loyalties and ambitions than by money.

To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary... is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds.

Freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter mush. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order.

We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final.

Will dissent be permitted? The answer to that question will determine whether the society is a free society or a fear society.

Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.

May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.

Down through the centuries, this trick has been tried by various establishments throughout the world. They force people to get involved in the kind of examination that has only one aim and that is to stamp out dissent.

People may believe that there can be a society where dissent is not permitted, but which is nonetheless not a fear society because everyone agrees with one another and therefore no one wants to dissent.

In contrast, fear societies are societies in which dissent is banned.

Throughout the lead-up to the war, CNN worked hard to air all sides of the story. We had a regular segment called Voices of Dissent in which we spent time covering antiwar protests and interviewing those who were opposed to the war with Iraq.

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.

Free societies are societies in which the right of dissent is protected.

It's so easy for propaganda to work, and dissent to be mocked.

Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate.

Science exists, moreover, only as a journey toward troth. Stifle dissent and you end that journey.

In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.

Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.

Dissent is the native activity of the scientist, and it has got him into a good deal of trouble in the last years. But if that is cut off, what is left will not be a scientist. And I doubt whether it will be a man.

A dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority: what it abominates most is the dissent of the majority.

In a democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is not in its taste, but in its effects.

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.

We may be so eager to protect the right to dissent that we lose sight of the difference between dissent and subversion.

Neither with those nor with the others, with all I agree and dissent; in all part of truth and part of error must be seen.

It's much easier to make jokes about sensitive issues if there is some dissent, some conflict.

Discussion in America means dissent.

So now is the time, more than ever, for those who truly value all the principles of democracy, especially including dissent, to be the most forceful in speaking up, standing up and speaking out.

The rightful claim to dissent is an existential right of the individual.

Has there ever been a society which has died of dissent? Several have died of conformity in our lifetime.

Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard.

There are men - now in power in this country - who do not respect dissent, who cannot cope with turmoil, and who believe that the people of America are ready to support repression as long as it is done with a quiet voice and a business suit.

The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent.

When a man fails to see the truth of certain generally accepted views, there is no law compelling him to provoke animosity by announcing his dissent.

In the end it is worse to suppress dissent than to run the risk of heresy.

Bring it on. Dissent is central to any democracy.

Public opinion polls are rather like children in a garden, digging things up all the time to see how they're growing.

I consider myself to be an inept pianist, a bad singer, and a merely competent songwriter. What I do, in my opinion, is by no means extraordinary.

Everyone is entitled to our opinion.