We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavouring to stifle is a false opinion; and even if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.
We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavouring to stifle is a false opinion; and even if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.
If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.
The principles which men profess on any controverted subject are usually a very incomplete exponent of the opinions they really hold.
The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race posterity as well as the existing generation those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.
All political revolutions, not affected by foreign conquest, originate in moral revolutions. The subversion of established institutions is merely one consequence of the previous subversion of established opinions.
Popular opinions, on subjects not palpable to sense, are often true, but seldom or never the whole truth.
© 2020 Inspirational Stories
© 2020 Inspirational Stories