"Freedom of speech is a principal pillar..." - Quote by Benjamin Franklin
Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins. Republics and limited monarchies derive their strength and vigor from a popular examination into the action of the magistrates.
More by Benjamin Franklin
More on Freedom
“There are very real obstacles and challenges to any course of action. And there's no need to add to them, by making up obstacles of your own. Unchain yourself from the bondage of your own thinking.”
“True, it is evil that a single man should crush the herd, but see not there the worse form of slavery, which is when the herd crushes out the man.”
“All men are by nature free; you have therefore an undoubted liberty to depart whenever you please, but will have many and great difficulties to encounter in passing the frontiers.”
More on Government
“Trade and commerce, if they were not made of Indian rubber, would never manage to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way.”
“Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.”
“Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.”