The liberty of the press is indeed essential to the nature of a free state: but this consists in laying no previous restraints upon publications, and not in freedom from censure for criminal matter when published. Every freeman has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public: to forbid this, is to destroy the freedom of the press: but if he publishes what is improper, mischievous, or illegal, he must take the consequence of his own temerity.

Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.

Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy.

The only security of all is in a free press.

Freedom of the Press,
if it means anything at all,
means the freedom
to criticize and oppose

No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.

Let every
writer
tell his
own
lies
That's freedom
of the
press.

Freedom (independence) from the laws of nature is no doubt a liberation from restraint, but also from the guidance of all rules.

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.

The struggle for freedom is ultimately not resistance to autocrats or oligarchs but resistance to the despotism of public opinion.

There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.

"Two things form the bedrock of any open society — freedom of expression and rule of law. If you don’t have those things, you don’t have a free country."

[<i>Don’t allow religious hooligans to dictate terms</i> (<i>The Times of India</i>, January 16, 2008)]

but now and then liberty, in the slogans of the strong, means freedom from restraint in the exploitation of the weak.

In the last analysis, a free and inquiring press is the most reliable check the citizens of our nation have against wrongdoing and bad judgment in government, since government, like any individual, is often reluctant to call attention to the errors of its own ways. It is therefore a mistake for the Congress to pursue legislation which hinders the press from performing this vital function.