Let us all seek truth as if none of us had possession of it.-Constantin F. Volney (1810). The truth is perilous never to the true, -Philip James Bailey (1875). Every new truth which has ever been propounded has, for a time, caused mischief; it has produced discomfort, and often unhappiness; sometimes by disturbing social or religious arrangements, and sometimes merely by the disruption of old and cherished association of thoughts. It is only after a certain interval, and when the framework of affairs has adjusted itself to the new truth, that its good effects preponderate; and the preponderance continues to increase, until, at length, the truth causes nothing but good. But, at the outset there is always harm. And if the truth is very great as well as very new the harm is serious. Men are made uneasy; they flinch; they cannot bear the sudden light; a general restlessness supervenes; the face of society is disturbed, or perhaps convulsed; old interests and old beliefs have been de stroyed before new ones have been created. These symptoms are the precursors of revolution; they have preceded all the great changes through which the world has passed.-Henry T. Buckle (1860). The boys of the rising generation are to be the men of the next, and the sole guardians of the principles we deliver over to them. Truth and reason are eternal. They have prevailed. And they will eternally prevail, however in times and places they may be overbourne for a while by violence, military, civil, or ecclesiastical. The preservation of the holy fire is confided to us by the world, and the sparks which emanate from it will ever serve to kindle it in other quarters of the globe.-Thomas Jefferson (1812). To the pure all things are pure. Knowledge cannot defile, nor consequently books if the will and conscience be not defiled. All opinions, yea, errors known, read and collated, are of main service and assistance toward speedy attainment of what is truest. To prevent men thinking and acting for themselves, by restraints on the press, is like to the exploits of that gallant man who thought to pound up crows by shutting his park gate . . . A forbidden writing is thought to be a certain spark of truth that flies up in the face of they that seek to tread it out. Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience above all other liberties.-John Milton (1665). All truth is safe, and nothing else is safe; and he who keeps back the truth or withholds it from men, from motives of expediency, is either a coward, or a criminal, or both.-Max Müller (1889). As a vessel is known by the sound, whether it be cracked or not; so men are proved, by their speeches, whether they be wise or foolish.-Demosthenes. The firmness with which the people have withstood the late abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false, and to form a correct judgment between them.-Thomas Jefferson (1804). Truth is something that comes from the conflict of differing opinions. When two dark clouds clash, lightning leaps forth; and when there is the clash between conflicting opinions, it is from that clash that truth leaps forth.-Joseph Proskauer (1928). For the great enemy of knowledge is not error, but inertness. All that we want is discussion, and then we are sure to do well, no matter what our blunders may be. One error conflicts with another; each destroys its opponent, and truth is evolved.-Henry T. Buckle (1857). Bad meats will scarce breed good nourishment in the healthiest concoction; but herein the difference is of bad books, that they to a discreet and judicious reader serve in many respects to discover, to confute, forewarn, and to illustrate . . .. All opinions, yea, errors, known, read and collated, are of main service and assistance toward the speedy attainment of what is truest.-John Milton (1644). He is the freeman whom the truth makes free, -William Cowper (1785). True opinions can prevail only if the facts to which they refer are known; if they are not known, false ideas are just as effective as true ones, if not a little more effective.-Walter Lippmann (1929). Indeed, no opinion or doctrine, of whatever nature it be, or whatever be its tendency, ought to be suppressed. For it is either manifestly true, or it is manifestly false, or its truth or falsehood is dubious. Its tendency is manifestly good, or manifestly bad, or it is dubious and concealed. There are no other assignable conditions, no other functions of the problem. In the case of its being manifestly true, and of good tendency, there can be no dispute. Nor in the case of its being manifestly otherwise; for by the terms it can mislead nobody. If its truth or its tendency be dubious, it is clear that nothing can bring the good to light, or expose the evil, but full and free discussion. Until this takes place, a plausible fallacy may do harm; but discussion is sure to elicit the truth, and fix public opinion on a proper basis; and nothing else can do it. Thomas Cooper (1800). And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.-John 8: 32. Thinking as We Please In a free country, every man thinks he has a concern in all public matters; that he has a right to form and a right to deliver an opinion upon them. They sift, examine, and discuss them. They are curious, eager, attentive, and jealous; and by making such matters the daily subjects of their thoughts and discoveries, vast numbers contract a very tolerable knowledge of them, and some a very considerable one. And this it is that fills free countries with men of ability in all stations. Whereas in other countries, none but men whose office calls them to it having not much care or thought about public affairs, and not daring to try the force of their opinions with one another, ability of this sort is extremely rare in any station in life.-Edmund Burke (1777). Freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one of that society, and made by the legislative power vested in it; a liberty to follow my own will in all things, where that rule prescribes not, and not to be subject to the inconstant, uncertain, unknown, arbitrary will of another man. John Locke (1690). It is the ferment of ideas, the clash of disagreeing judgments, the privilege of the individual to develop his own thought and shape his own character which makes progress possible.-Calvin Coolidge (1925). To suffer a civil magistrate to intrude his power into the field of opinion at once destroys all liberty because he will approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own. It is time enough to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order. Thomas Jefferson (1787). We need only to glance at the current world scene to realize that the preservation of individual liberty is more important today than ever it was in the past. The safety of our nation depends upon the extent to which we foster in each individual citizen that sturdy independence of thought and action, which is essential in a democracy.-Albert B. Maris (1938). So long as faith with freedom reigns And loyal hope survives, And gracious charity remains To leaven lowly lives; While there is one untrodden tract For intellect or will, And men are free to think and act, Life is worth living still. -Alfred Austin (1900). I have sworn upon the alter of the living God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.-Thomas Jefferson (1787). Over against Nature stands Man, and deep in his heart is the passion for liberty. For the passion for liberty is only another name for life itself. Liberty is a word of much sophistication, but. it means, when it means anything, opportunity to live one's own life in one's own way.-Charles Ferguson (1900). Ideas are always liveliest when attempts are made to suppress them. The very worst way to suppress an idea is to attempt to suppress it. For, if an idea is true, you can't suppress it, and if it is false it does not need to be suppressed-it will suppress itself. If we all agreed finally and for good, talking would be nonsense. But because we disagree, talking is the part of wisdom.-Horace Traubel. What other liberty is there worth having, if we have not freedom and peace in our minds, if our inmost and most private man is but a sour and turbid pool?-Henry David Thoreau (1853). Free Government The Republican form of government is the highest form of government; but because of this it requires the highest type of human nature.-Herbert Spencer (1900). There is what I call the American idea. This idea demands, as the proximate organization thereof, a democracy; that is, a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government of the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God; for shortness' sake I will call it the idea of Freedom.-Theodore Parker (1850). I have always regarded that (the American) Constitution as the most remarkable work known to me in modern times to have been produced by the human intellect, at a single stroke, so to speak, in its application to political affairs.William Ewart Gladstone (1887). The American Constitution is no exception to the rule that everything which has power to win the obedience and respect of men must have its roots deep in the past, and that the more slowly every institution has grown, so much the more enduring is it likely to prove. There is a hearty puritanism in the view of human nature which pervades the instrument of 1787.-James V. Bryce (1910). The doctrine upon which we stand is strong and sound because its enforcement is important to our peace and safety as a nation, and is essential to the integrity of our free institutions, and the tranquil maintenance of our distinctive form of government. It was intended to apply to every stage of our national life and cannot become obsolete while our Republic endures.-Grover Cleveland (1895). Democracy will itself accomplish the salutary universal change from delusive to real, and make a new blessed world of us by and by.-Thomas Carlyle (1876). Democracy is the healthful lifeblood which circulates through the veins and arteries, which supports the system, but which ought never to appear externally, and as the mere blood itself.-Samuel T. Coleridge (1830). Freedom in a democracy is the glory of the state, and, therefore, in a democracy only will the freeman of nature deign to dwell.-Plato. By the blessing of God, may that country (America) itself become a vast and splendid monument, not of oppression and terror, but of wisdom, of peace, and of liberty, upon which the world may gaze with admiration forever!— Daniel Webster (1825). I believe in Democracy because it releases the energies of every human being.Woodrow Wilson (1912). A song for our banner? The watchword recall It made and preserves us a nation! And the Flag of our Union forever! -George Pope Morris (1840). Our government was founded to give life to certain basic principles of human rights, which the people embodied in the Constitution as the Bill of Rights.Alfred M. Landon (1936). The true ends of social justice can be achieved only in conditions of individual freedom under law, through the institutions of popular government.-Cordell Hull (1939). We must never forget the most important function of government-to preserve by orderly, well considered processes the rights and dignity of the individual. There are many such rights, but first among them is the right to freedom-freedom to enjoy a full life, freedom of opportunity to win the good things of life, freedom to achieve a proportionate share of the modern luxuries which make life happier and more complete. There are other rights-basic rights of the free man; the right to worship as he sees fit; the right to think clearly and honestly and to act on such thoughts; the right to freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of public assembly. These rights must not be violated.-Thomas E. Dewey (1938). We have a great, popular, constitutional government, guarded by law and by judicature, and defended by the affections of the whole people. No monarchial throne presses these States together, no iron chain of military power encircles them; they live and stand under a government popular in its form, representative in its character, founded upon principles of equality, and so constructed, we hope, as to last for ever.-Daniel Webster (1850). The purpose of democracy is the minimizing of injustices and the universalizing of its gains.-Charles S. Johnson (1936). We, in this great American Republic are, and should be, the guiding star for all the world; and if, united with the other nations related to us in spirit and aspirations, we do our full duty, progress will be assured, the peace of the world will be conserved, and we shall set an example that will be emulated all over the world.-Rudolph Blankenburg (1913). Oppression will drive men mad. But we know how to make States that will stand, and not merely stand still, but that will radiate, vitalize and illuminate the world.-Henry Ward Beecher (1886). I believe that this Constitution is likely to be well administered for a course of years and can only end in despotism as other forms have done before it when the people shall become so corrupt as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.-Benjamin Franklin (1787). Civil and religious liberty, universal education and the right to participate, directly or through representatives chosen by himself, in all the affairs of government-these give to the American citizen an opportunity and an inspiration which can be found nowhere else.-William Jennings Bryan (1899). Let us look for guidance to the principles of true Democracy, which are enduring because they are right, and invincible because they are just.—Grover Cleveland (1882). The idea of democracy is eternal. . . . Democracy wishes to raise up mankind. to give it freedom, and its greatest strength lies in its deep spiritual and moral self-consciousness.-Thomas Mann (1940). |