If our democracy is to flourish, it must have criticism; if our government is to function it must have dissent.

We cannot have a society half slave and half free; nor can we have thought half slave and half free. If we create an atmosphere in which men fear to think independently, inquire fearlessly, express themselves freely, we will in the end create the kind of society in which men no longer care to think independently or to inquire fearlessly.

The greatest danger we face is not any particular kind of thought. The greatest danger we face is absence of thought.

Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive.

Education is essential to change, for education creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy them.

If our democracy is to flourish, it must have criticism; if our government is to function it must have dissent.

Every effort to confine Americanism to a single pattern, to constrain it to a single formula, is disloyalty to everything that is valid in Americanism.