“Majorities, of course, are often mistaken. This is why the silencing of minorities is necessarily dangerous.”

In a free society these institutions must be wholly free – which is to say that their function is to serve as checks upon the state.

The notion that the church, the press, and the universities should serve the state is essentially a Communist notion.

Criticism and dissent are the indispensable antidote to major delusions.

Tolerance of diversity is imperative, because without it, life would lose its savor.

Loyalty in a free society depends upon the toleration of disloyalty.

Progress in the arts, in the sciences, in the patterns of social adjustment springs from diversity and depends upon a tolerance of individual deviations from conventional ways and attitudes.

Thought that is silenced is always rebellious.

News is only the first rough draft of history.

It leaves him free to commit the same deed over and over again, and may, indeed, win him the honors of a hero in the country of his victims.

Criticism and dissent are the indispensable antidote to major delusions.

Thought that is silenced is always rebellious.

Character assassination is at once easier and surer than physical assault; and it involves far less risk for the assassin.

I feel more like I’m a person who has so much to offer in different capacities that it would be a danger for me not to give myself a chance to spread my wings in all different directions.

One can unite the French only under the threat of danger. One cannot simply bring together a nation that produces 265 kinds of cheese.

He could tell she was a little risky but he often enjoyed the taste of danger.

The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.

If you think that American imperialism and its globalised, capitalist form is the most dangerous thing in the world, that means you don’t think the Islamic Republic of Iran or North Korea or the Taliban is as bad.

The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.

The passions are like fire, useful in a thousand ways and dangerous only in one, through their excess.

And once you’re unafraid with death, I think your capacity for violence is immediately increased. Once you’re unafraid of death, you are a very, very dangerous adversary.