Without criticism and reliable and intelligent reporting, the government cannot govern.

Freedom to speak... can be maintained only by promoting debate.

It is impossible to abolish either with a law or an axe the desires of men.

The private citizen, beset by partisan appeals for the loan of his Public Opinion, will soon see, perhaps, that these appeals are not a compliment to his intelligence, but an imposition on his good nature and an insult to his sense of evidence.

The first principle of a civilized state is that power is legitimate only when it is under contract.

The unexamined life, said Socrates, is unfit to be lived by man. This is the virtue of liberty, and the ground on which we may justify our belief in it, that it tolerates error in order to serve truth.

The common interests very largely elude public opinion entirely, and can be managed only by a specialised class.