“Without an unfettered press, without liberty of speech, all of the outward forms and structures of free institutions are a sham, a pretense – the sheerest mockery. If the press is not free; if speech is not independent and untrammeled; if the mind is shackled…

“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.” Theodore Roosevelt, (1858-1919) 26th US President
….

“They [the founders] proclaimed to all the world the revolutionary doctrine of the divine rights of the common man. That doctrine has ever since been the heart of the American faith.” Dwight D. Eisenhower, (1890-1969), 34th US President, WWII General. Source Reference…

“In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything; in the latter, because they are nothing.” Charles-Louis de Secondat, (1689-1755) Baron de Montesquieu. Source: “The Spirit of Laws” (1748). Source Reference Charles-Louis…

“Freedom is the recognition that no single person, no single authority or government has a monopoly on the truth, but that every individual life is infinitely precious, that every one of us put in this world has been put there…

“Whenever ‘A’ attempts by law to impose his moral standards upon ‘B’, ‘A’ is most likely a scoundrel.” H. L. Mencken, (1880-1956) American Journalist, Editor, Essayist, Linguist, Lexicographer, and Critic. Source Reference H. L. Mencken Quote

“Any attempt to replace a personal conscience by a collective conscience does violence to the individual and is the first step toward totalitarianism.” Herman Hesse, (1877-1962). Source: Reflections, 1974. Source Reference Herman Hesse Quote

“There can be no public or private virtue unless the foundation of action is the practice of truth.” George Jacob Holyoake, (1817-1906) English secularist.
 Source Reference George Jacob Holyoake Quote

“Without an unfettered press, without liberty of speech, all of the outward forms and structures of free institutions are a sham, a pretense – the sheerest mockery. If the press is not free; if speech is not independent and untrammeled; if the mind is shackled…

“Humanity’s most valuable assets have been the non-conformists. Were it not for the non-conformists, he who refuses to be satisfied to go along with the continuance of things as they are, and insists upon attempting to find new ways of bettering things, the world…

“There is surely no contradiction in saying that a certain section of the community may be quite competent to protect the persons and property of the rest, yet quite unfit to direct our opinions, or to superintend our private habits.” Thomas Babington Macaulay, (1800-1859)…

“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”…