The Bill of Rights was not written to protect governments from trouble. It was written precisely to give the people the constitutional means to cause trouble for governments they no longer trusted. — Henry Steele Commager Copy Share Image
It's awfully hard to be the son of a great man and also of a half-crazy woman. — Henry Steele Commager Copy Share
America was born of revolt, flourished in dissent, became great through experimentation. — Henry Steele Commager Copy Share
The American people...have a stake in non-conformity. For they know that the American genius is non-conformist. — Henry Steele Commager Copy Share
We should not be surprised that the Founding Fathers didn't foresee everything, when we see that the current Fathers hardly ever foresee anything. — Henry Steele Commager Copy Share
We should not forget that our tradition is one of protest and revolt, and it is stultifying to celebrate the rebels of the past… — Henry Steele Commager Copy Share
The justification and the purpose of freedom of speech is not to indulge those who want to speak their minds. It is to prevent… — Henry Steele Commager Copy Share
“A free society cherishes nonconformity. It knows that from the non-conformist, from the eccentric, have come many of the great ideas of freedom. A… — Henry Steele Commager Copy Share
The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of… — Henry Steele Commager Copy Share
A free society cherishes nonconformity. It knows from the non-conformist, from the eccentric, have come many of the great ideas. — Henry Steele Commager Copy Share
History is organized memory, and the organization is all important! — Henry Steele Commager Copy Share
It seems fair to say that while the moral standards of the nineteenth century persisted almost unchanged into the twentieth, moral practices changed sharply,… — Henry Steele Commager Copy Share
In the long run [censorship] will create a generation incapable of appreciating the difference between independence of thought and subservience. — Henry Steele Commager Copy Share
History, we can confidently assert, is useful in the sense that art and music, poetry and flowers, religion and philosophy are useful. Without it… — Henry Steele Commager Copy Share
Whether history will judge this war to be different or not we cannot say. But this we can say with certainty: A government and… — Henry Steele Commager Copy Share
We cannot have a society half slave and half free; nor can we have thought half slave and half free. If we create an… — Henry Steele Commager Copy Share
