Authority Quote by Henry Steele Commager

It's awfully hard to be the son of a great man and also of a half-crazy woman.

— Henry Steele Commager

America was born of revolt, flourished in dissent, became great through experimentation.

— Henry Steele Commager

The American people...have a stake in non-conformity. For they know that the American genius is non-conformist.

— Henry Steele Commager

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

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

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

“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

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

A free society cherishes nonconformity. It knows from the non-conformist, from the eccentric, have come many of the great ideas.

— Henry Steele Commager

History is organized memory, and the organization is all important!

— Henry Steele Commager

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

In the long run [censorship] will create a generation incapable of appreciating the difference between independence of thought and subservience.

— Henry Steele Commager