“What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.”

As quoted in "The right to be downright offensive" by Jonathan Duffy in BBC News Magazine (21 December 2004) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4114497.stm

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist." by Salman Rushdie?
Salman Rushdie photo
Salman Rushdie 122
British Indian novelist and essayist 1947

Related quotes

Angelo Vulpini photo

“Freedom does not exist partially, if I don't have the freedom of opinion or expression regarding whoever, then there's certainly no actual freedom”

Angelo Vulpini (2003) Venezuelan recording artist

Source: Posted on @angelovulpini, Instagram (June 3, 2019)

Roger Ebert photo

“Of what use is freedom of speech to those who fear to offend?”

Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter

Roger Ebert's Movie Home Companion (1990 Edition), p. 735

Rudolph Rummel photo

“Since advancing freedom of the press furthers democracy, spreading freedom of the press promotes world peace. And the reverse logic is also true. Without democracies, there will be war; without freedom of the press, democracies cannot exist.”

Rudolph Rummel (1932–2014) American academic

“Freedom of the press—a way to peace,” ASNE Bulletin (February 1989), p. 27. ASNE stands for the American Association of Newspaper Editors

Jiddu Krishnamurti photo
Dinesh D'Souza photo

“Somehow freedom for religious expression has become freedom from religious expression.”

Dinesh D'Souza (1961) Indian-American political commentator, filmmaker, author

Source: Books, What's So Great about Christianity (2007), Ch. 3
Source: What's So Great About Christianity
Context: Today courts wrongly interpret separation of church and state to mean that religion has no place in the public arena, or that morality derived from religion should not be permitted to shape our laws. Somehow freedom for religious expression has become freedom from religious expression. Secularists want to empty the public square of religion and religious-based morality so they can monopolize the shared space of society with their own views.

Bergen Evans photo

“Freedom of speech and freedom of action are meaningless without freedom to think. And there is no freedom of thought without doubt.”

Bergen Evans (1904–1978) American lexicographer

The Natural History of Nonsense XIX.

Neale Donald Walsch photo
Immanuel Kant photo
Ursula K. Le Guin photo

“What was the good working for freedom all your life and ending up without any freedom at all?”

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) American writer

“The Day Before the Revolution” p. 272 (originally published in Galaxy, August 1974)
Short fiction, The Wind’s Twelve Quarters (1975)

Related topics