#freedom-of-thought

"If a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission."

"A thinker can truly think only when there is true freedom of thought."

"When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons."

"The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities."

"To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone— to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone: From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big Brother, from the age of doublethink — greetings!"

"I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions."

"Those who make conversations impossible, make escalation inevitable."

"Libraries should be open to all - except the censor.[Response to questionnaire in Saturday Review, October 29 1960]"

"No man owns me. All man can do is practice the timeless, criminal art of threatening to separate my soul from her physical host."

"Cram them full of non-combustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change. Don’t give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy."

"Hypocrites get offended by the truth."

"Freedom is an absolute state, there is no such thing as being half-free."

"With a philosophy education, one can infuriate his peers, intimidate his date, think of obscure, unreliable ways to make money, and never regret a thing."

"It is very nearly impossible to become an educated person in a country so distrustful of the independent mind."