“People must be able to express their opinion and protest freely. A free society in the country can protect it much better than any military force.”

—  Mir-Hossein Mousavi

As quoted in "The Political Evolution of Mousavi" by Muhammad Sahimi, PBS Frontline : Tehran Bureau (16 February 2010)

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 "People must be able to express their opinion and protest freely. A free society in the country can protect it much bett…" by Mir-Hossein Mousavi?
Mir-Hossein Mousavi photo
Mir-Hossein Mousavi 5
Iranian politician and architect 1941

Related quotes

Alexander De Croo photo

“Freedom of expression is one of the foundations of our society. Everyone is free to express their opinion. But our society will never accept indiscriminate violence, and even less towards our police forces.”

Alexander De Croo (1975) Belgian politician

Source: Alexander De Croo (2022) cited in: " Clashes as tens of thousands protest Covid rules in Belgium https://www.malaymail.com/news/world/2022/01/24/clashes-as-tens-of-thousands-protest-covid-rules-in-belgium/2037074" in Malay Mail, 24 January 2022.

Constantine II of Greece photo

“I consider myself King of the Hellenes and sole expression of legality in my country until the Greek people freely decide otherwise. I fully expected that the [military] regime would depose me eventually. They are frightened of the Crown because it is a unifying force among the people.”

Constantine II of Greece (1940–2023) former King of Greece

As quoted in W.J.P. Curley (1975) Monarchs In Waiting, pp.39-41

Noam Chomsky photo

“In many respects, the United States is a great country. Freedom of speech is protected more than in any other country. It is also a very free society. In America, the professor talks to the mechanic. They are in the same category.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist
Fred M. Vinson photo

“Overthrow of the Government by force and violence is certainly a substantial enough interest for the Government to limit speech. Indeed, this is the ultimate value of any society, for if a society cannot protect its very structure from armed internal attack, it must follow that no subordinate value can be protected.”

Fred M. Vinson (1890–1953) American politician and Supreme Court justice

Dennis v. United States, 341 U.S. 494 (1951)

Friedrich Hayek photo

“What a free society offers to the individual is much more than what he would be able to do if only he were free.”

Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992) Austrian and British economist and Nobel Prize for Economics laureate

Source: 1960s–1970s, The Constitution of Liberty (1960), p. 6.

Dean Acheson photo

“Force can overcome force, but a free society cannot long steel itself to dominate another people by sheer force.”

Dean Acheson book Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department

Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department (1969), Principles

Thich Nhat Hanh photo

“Preventing war is much better than protesting against the war. Protesting the war is too late.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Being Peace

John F. Kennedy photo

“The political disposition of peoples should rest upon their own wishes, freely expressed in plebiscites or free elections.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

1961, UN speech
Context: The political disposition of peoples should rest upon their own wishes, freely expressed in plebiscites or free elections. If there are legal problems, they can be solved by legal means. If there is a threat of force, it must be rejected. If there is desire for change, it must be a subject for negotiation, and if there is negotiation, it must be rooted in mutual respect and concern for the rights of others.

“The duty and the right to express one's opinion freely may be meaningless—and on occasion even injurious to the best interests of the society—if those opinions are not based on sound thought, which, in its turn, presupposes the possession of sound knowledge.”

Muhammad Asad book The Principles of State and Government in Islam

Source: The Principles of State and Government in Islam (1961), Chapter 5: The Citizens And The Government, p 86

Salman Rushdie photo

“Two things form the bedrock of any open society—freedom of expression and rule of law. If you don’t have those things, you don’t have a free country.”

Salman Rushdie (1947) British Indian novelist and essayist

The Times of India, ‘Don’t allow religious hooligans to dictate terms’ http://archive.is/ecOpa (16 January 2008)

Related topics