Henry Steele Commager: Quotes about silence

Henry Steele Commager was American historian. Explore interesting quotes on silence.

Henry Steele Commager: 54 quotes2 likes

“We should not forget that our tradition is one of protest and revolt, and it is stultifying to celebrate the rebels of the past—Jefferson and Paine, Emerson and Thoreau—while we silence the rebels of the present.”

Henry Steele Commager

Source: Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent (1954), p. 147

“If government, or those in positions of power and authority, can silence criticism by the argument that such criticism might be misunderstood somewhere, there is an end to all criticism, and perhaps an end to our kind of political system. For men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive.”

Henry Steele Commager

"The Problem of Dissent" in Saturday Review, Volume 48 (December 1965), p. 81; also read into the US Congressional Record (26 June 1969)

“A nation that silences or intimidates original minds is left only with unoriginal minds and cannot hope to hold its own in the competition of peace or of war.”

Henry Steele Commager

Source: Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent (1954), p. 80

“If you are going to penalize disloyalty, you must first determine what loyalty is; if you are going to silence nonconformity, you must determine what conformity is—and to what it conforms.”

Henry Steele Commager

Source: Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent (1954), p. 15