“What gunpowder did for war, the printing press has done for the mind, and the statesman is no longer clad in the steel of special education, but every reading man is his judge.”

— Wendell Phillips

Anti-Slavery Speech (January 1852) http://books.google.com/books?id=SCpVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA22 Published in The Works of Wendell Phillips, Street & Smith (1902), p. 22-23
1850s

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Wendell Phillips 23

American abolitionist, advocate for Native Americans, orato… 1811–1884

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“It was early in the Seventeenth Century that Francis Bacon remarked on three recent inventions already transforming the world: the compass, gunpowder and the printing press. Now the links between the nations first forged by the compass have made us all citizens of the world, the hopes and threats of one becoming the hopes and threats of us all. In that one world's efforts to live together, the evolution of gunpowder to its ultimate limit has warned mankind of the terrible consequences of failure.
And so it is to the printing press — to the recorder of man's deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news — that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.”

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

Kennedy here references Francis Bacon’s Aphorism 129 of Novum Organum: Again, we should notice the force, effect, and consequences of inventions, which are nowhere more conspicuous than in those three which were unknown to the ancients; namely, printing, gunpowder, and the compass. For these three have changed the appearance and state of the whole world; first in literature, then in warfare, and lastly in navigation: and innumerable changes have been thence derived, so that no empire, sect, or star, appears to have exercised a greater power and influence on human affairs than these mechanical discoveries.
1961, Address to ANPA

“Lo, steel-clad War his gorgeous standard rears!
The red-cross squadrons madly rage,
And mow thro' infancy and age”

Samuel Rogers (1763–1855) British poet

III.2. l. 1-3.
Ode to Superstition (1786)

“I must judge for myself, but how can I judge, how can any man judge, unless his mind has been opened and enlarged by reading.”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

Source: Diary and Autobiography of John Adams: Volumes 1-4, Diary (1755-1804) and Autobiography

“What do nations care about the cost of war, if by spending a few hundred millions in steel and gunpowder they can gain a thousand millions in diamonds and cocoa?”

W.E.B. Du Bois (1868–1963) American sociologist, historian, activist and writer

“Free press: all may read whatever is printed.”

Karlheinz Deschner (1924–2014) German writer and activist

Freie Presse: jeder darf lesen, was gedruckt wird.
Nur Lebendiges schwimmt gegen den Strom

“When writing the constitution for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, John Adams wrote:
I must judge for myself, but how can I judge, how can any man judge, unless his mind has been opened and enlarged by reading.”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

“Every man has at times in his mind the Ideal of what he should be, but is not.”

Theodore Parker (1810–1860) abolitionist

"A Lesson for the Day; or The Christianity of Christ, of the Church, and of Society" in The Dial (October 1940), p. 196.
Context: Every man has at times in his mind the Ideal of what he should be, but is not. This ideal may be high and complete, or it may be quite low and insufficient; yet in all men, that really seek to improve, it is better than the actual character. Perhaps no one is satisfied with himself, so that he never wishes to be wiser, better, and more holy. Man never falls so low, that he can see nothing higher than himself.

“Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to Colonel Charles Yancey http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=807&chapter=88152&layout=html&Itemid=27 (6 January 1816) ME 14:384
1810s
Context: If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information. Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe.

“The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

Samuel Butler's Notebooks http://books.google.com/books?id=cjk3AAAAIAAJ&q="The+most+important+service+rendered+by+the+press+and+the+magazines+is+that+of+educating+people+to+approach+printed+matter+with+distrust" (1951)

“The three great elements of modern civilization, gunpowder, printing, and the Protestant religion.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

The State of German Literature (1827).
1820s, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827–1855)

“What gunpowder did for war, the printing press has done for the mind, and the statesman is no longer clad in the steel of special education, but every reading man is his judge.”

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Wendell Phillips 23

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