A nation that silences or intimidates original minds is left only with unoriginal minds and cannot hope to hold its own in the competition of peace o… - Henry Steele Commager

We should not forget that our tradition is one of protest and revolt, and it is stultifying to celebrate the rebels of the past—Jefferson and Paine, Emerson and Thoreau—while we silence the rebels of the present.

But if our democracy is to flourish it must have criticism, if our government is to function it must have dissent. Only totalitarian governments insist upon conformity and they—as we know—do so at their peril.

The greatest danger that threatens us is neither heterodox thought nor orthodox thought, but the absence of thought.