Two days later: 21st June 1997: today is mass defiance day. There’s going to be protests outside five hundred of McDonald’s UK stores, and lots around the world too. They haven’t seen the last of the leaflet. ibid. Helen Steel
Most so-called anti-social behaviour is actually people fighting over the crumbs that are thrown from the table. The real people who are behaving anti-socially are those who control all of the resources. ibid.
Having largely beaten McDonald’s ... we have now exposed the notoriously oppressive and unfair UK laws. As a result of the ... ruling today, the government may be forced to amend or scrap some of the existing UK laws. We hope that this will result in greater public scrutiny and criticism of powerful organisations whose practices have a detrimental effect on society and the environment. The McLibel campaign has already proved that determined and widespread grass-roots protests and defiance can undermine those who try to silence their critics, and also render oppressive laws unworkable. The continually growing opposition to McDonald’s and all it stands for is a vindication of all the efforts of those around the world who have been exposing and challenging the corporation’s business practices. Steel & Morris press release
Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us. William O Douglas
Without free speech no search for truth is possible; without free speech, no discovery of truth is useful. Charles Bradlaugh
It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power, each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own. Herbert Hoover
Laws alone cannot secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population. Albert Einstein
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. Voltaire
To understand free speech means freedom to speak what others do not like and even cannot stand to hear ... Tolerating what you like is hardly a major achievement. Hitler tolerated what he liked. So did Stalin. Idi Amin did too. So did Genghis Khan, the Shah, and Henry Kissinger. Free speech only becomes an issue when someone says what others don’t want to hear. Michael Albert
What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist. Salman Rushdie, Guardian 10th February 1990
One of the things a writer is for is to say the unsayable, speak the unspeakable and ask difficult questions. Salman Rushdie, Independent on Sunday 10th September 1995
Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. Salman Rushdie
Fear of serious injury alone cannot justify oppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears. Louis D Brandeis
The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic. Oliver Wendell Holmes junior, Schenck v United States 1919
A well-functioning democracy has a culture of free speech, not simply legal protection of free speech. It encourages independence of mind. It imparts a willingness to challenge prevailing opinion through both words and deeds. Equally important, it encourages a certain set of attitudes in listeners, one that gives a respectful hearing to those who do not embrace the conventional wisdom. In a culture of free speech, the attitude of listeners is no less important than that of speakers. Cuss Sunstein
If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led like sheep to the slaughter. George Washington
It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power, each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own. Herbert Hoover
Free speech is too dangerous to a democracy to be permitted. H L Mencken
Free speech is intended to protect the controversial and even outrageous word; and not just comforting platitudes too mundane to need protection. Colin Powell
Free speech, exercised both individually and through a free press, is a necessity in any country where people are themselves free. Theodore Roosevelt
If the fires of freedom and civil liberties burn low in other lands, they must be made brighter in our own. If in other lands the press and books and literature of all kinds are censored, we must redouble our efforts here to keep them free. F D Roosevelt
There is no more fundamental axiom of American freedom than the familiar statement: In a free country we punish men for crimes they commit but never for the opinions they have. Harry S Truman
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they rarely use. Soren Kierkegaard
If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. John Stuart Mill
I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an ass of yourself. Oscar Wilde
My own opinion is enough for me, and I claim the right to have it defended against any consensus, any majority, anywhere, any place, any time. And anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, get in line, and kiss my ass. Christopher Hitchens
Give me the liberty to know to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties. John Milton, Areopagitica, 1644
Freedom is fundamentally the possibility of standing on a street corner and shouting, ‘There is no freedom here!’ Yoani Sánchez
Everyone is in favour of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people’s idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage. Winston S Churchill, Hansard 13th October 1943
Free speech is the cornerstone to every right we have. Mark Thomas
Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech; which is the Right of every Man, as far as by it, he does not hurt or control the Right of another. And this is the only Check it ought to suffer, and the only bounds it ought to know. This sacred Privilege is to essential to free Governments, that the Security of Property, and the Freedom of Speech always go together; and in those wretched Countries where a Man cannot call his Tongue his own, he can scarce call any Thing else his own. Whoever would overthrow the Liberty of a Nation, must begin by subduing the Fteeness [sic!] of Speech; a Thing terrible to Publick Traytors. Cato, Letters
Freedom of Speech is ever the Symptom, as well as the Effect of a good Government. In old Rome, all was left to the Judgment and Pleasure of the People, who examined the publick Proceedings with such Discretion, and censured those who administered them with such Equity and Mildness, that in the space of Three Hundred Years, not five publick Ministers suffered unjustly. Indeed whenever the Commons proceeded to Violence, the great Ones had been the Aggressors. ibid.
Freedom of speech is the great bulwark of liberty; they prosper and die together. And it is the terror of traitors and oppressors, and a barrier against them. It produces excellent writers, and encourages men of fine genius. ibid.
I would defend the freedom of speech. And why? Because no attack can be answered by force, no argument can be refuted by a blow, or by imprisonment, or by fine. You may imprison the man, but the argument is free; you may fell the man to the earth, but the statement stands. Robert G Ingersoll
Profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials. William J Brennan junior, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States re New York Times Co v Sullivan 1964
Freedom of speech is central to most every other right that we hold dear in the United States and serves to strengthen the democracy of our great country. It is unfortunate, then, when actions occur that might be interpreted as contrary to this honored tenet. Sam Farr, Congressional Record: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press November 1997
Among the principles in place that have seemed to work for us are individual freedom of expression (especially for those whose expression offends us) and a strong individual guarantee of privacy in our First Amendment-protected communications. Mike Godwin, Cyber Rights: Defending Free Speech in the Digital Age, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2003