Quote#Speech
If a man makes the press utter atrocious things he becomes as…
Quote byThomas Paine · 1737–1809
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Liberty of the Press (1806).
English (original)
If a man makes the press utter atrocious things he becomes as answerable for them as if he had uttered them by word of mouth. Mr. Jefferson has said in his inaugural speech, that "error of opinion might be tolerated, when reason was left free to combat it." This is sound philosophy in cases of error. But there is a difference between error and licentiousness.
— Thomas Paine
More from Thomas Paine
Where knowledge is a duty, ignorance is a crime.
He who dares not offend cannot be honest.
A man who is so exceedingly civil that for the sake of quietude and a peaceable name will silently see the community imposed upon, or their rights invaded, may, in his principles, be a good man, but cannot be stiled a useful one, neither …
Eloquence may strike the ear, but the language of poverty strikes the heart; the first may charm like music, but the second alarms like a knell.
This sacrifice of common sense is the certain badge which distinguishes slavery from freedom; for when men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.
War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen and unsupposed circumstances ... that no human wisdom can calculate the end.