"He who stifles free discussion, secretly doubts whether what he professes to believe is really true."

Wendell Phillips Law See all quotes by Wendell Phillips →

React to this quote

More by Wendell Phillips

“Revolutions never go backward.”

“Aristocracy is always cruel.”

“aces love to be judged in two ways—by the great men they produce, and by the average merit of the mass of the race.”

“The agitator must stand outside of organizations, with no bread to earn, no candidate to elect, no party to save, no object but truth — to tear a question open and riddle it with light.”

“What the Puritans gave the world was not thought, but action.”

“The best use of laws is to teach men to trample bad laws under their feet.”

Resonant Thoughts

"If you’re an optimist and you believe in miracles like I do, and you can find something that makes you giggle every day and that you love and you spend your day helping people–that is the best anti-ag…"

— Barbara Niven

Entertainment1953

#love

"In regard, then, to the sacred tradition of humanity, we learn that it consists, not in propositions or statements which are to be accepted and believed on the authority of the tradition, but in quest…"

— William Kingdon Clifford

Philosophy1845–1879

#truth

"It is true that some percentage of bright people really do not test well, but most of the time the only thing about "common man's intelligence" that is indubitably true is that it is common. The conce…"

— Ann Coulter

Literature1961

#truth

"Zero sum game implies winners and losers. If somebody wins, somebody gotta lose…. I don’t agree with that. Because all boats can rise on a rising sea. Good films help other good films. Different psych…"

— Oliver Stone

Entertainment1946

#truth