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#freedomofthepress — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #freedomofthepress, aggregated by home.social.

  1. A quotation from Voltaire

    Had there been a literary censorship in Rome, we should have had to-day neither Horace, Juvenal, nor the philosophical works of Cicero. If Milton, Dryden, Pope, and Locke had not been free, England would have had neither poets nor philosophers; there is something positively Turkish in proscribing printing; and hampering it is proscription.
     
    [S’il y avait eu une inquisition littéraire à Rome, nous n’aurions aujourd’hui ni Horace, ni Juvénal, ni les œuvres philosophiques de Cicéron. Si Milton, Dryden, Pope, et Locke, n’avaient pas été libres l’Angleterre n’aurait eu ni des poètes, ni des philosophes: il y a je ne sais quoi de turc à proscrire l’imprimerie, et c’est la proscrire que la trop gêner.]

    Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
    Letter (1733-06-20) to a First Commissioner [Lettre á un premier commis] [tr. Tallentyre (1919)]

    More about this quote: wist.info/voltaire/85406/

    #quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #voltaire #authors #censorship #classics #freepress #freedomofthepress #history #literature #perspective

  2. A quotation from Voltaire

    As you have it in your power, sir, to do some service to letters, I implore you not to clip the wings of our writers so closely, nor to turn into barn-door fowls those who, allowed a start, might become eagles; reasonable liberty permits the mind to soar — slavery makes it creep.
     
    [Puisque vous êtes, monsieur, à portée de rendre service aux belles-lettres, ne rognez pas de si près les ailes à nos écrivains, et ne faites pas des volailles de basse-cour de ceux qui, en prenant l’essor, pourraient devenir des aigles: une liberté honnête élève l’esprit, et l’esclavage le fait ramper.]

    Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
    Letter (1733-06-20) to a First Commissioner [Lettre á un premier commis] [tr. Tallentyre (1919)]

    More about this quote: wist.info/voltaire/85298/

    #quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #voltaire #censorship #control #enslavement #freepress #freedomofthepress #liberty #regulation #restrictions #writers

  3. A quotation not from Voltaire

    I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

    Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
    (Spurious)

    More about this misquote: wist.info/voltaire/34462/

    #quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #voltaire #defense #freepress #freespeech #freedomofexpression #freedomofspeech #freedomofthepress #integrity #principle #selfsacrifice

  4. A quotation from Henry Commager

    The Bill of Rights was not written into the Constitution in order to protect governments from “trouble,” but so that the people might have a legitimate method of causing trouble to governments they no longer trusted.

    Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
    Letter (1971-06-17) to the Editor, New York Times

    More about this quote: wist.info/commager-henry-steel…

    #quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #henrycommager #commager #pentagonpapers #billofrights #civilliberties #civilrights #Constitution #dissent #firstamendment #freepress #freedomofthepress #government #petition #protest #thepeople

  5. A quotation from Henry Commager

    Who are those who are really disloyal? Those who inflame racial hatreds, who sow religious and class dissensions. Those who subvert the Constitution by violating the freedom of the ballot box. Those who make a mockery of majority rule by the use of the filibuster. Those who impair democracy by denying equal educational facilities. Those who frustrate justice by lynch law or by making a farce of jury trials. Those who deny freedom of speech and of the press and of assembly. Those who press for special favors against the interest of the commonwealth. Those who regard public office as a source of private gain. Those who would exalt the military over the civil. Those who for selfish and private purposes stir up national antagonisms and expose the world to the ruin of war.

    Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
    Essay (1947-09), “Who Is Loyal to America?” sec. 3, Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 195, No. 1168

    More about this quote: wist.info/commager-henry-steel…

    #quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #henrycommager #America #civilliberties #civilrights #corruption #demagoguery #democracy #disloyalty #division #firstamendment #freepress #freespeech #freedomofreligion #freedomofspeech #freedomofthepress #injustice #jingoism #justice #loyalty #loyaltyoath #military #patriotism #publicoffice #religiousfreedom #unAmerican #usvsthem #votersuppression #votingrights #war #warmongering