QuoteProject
Being offended by freedom of speech should never be regarded as a justification for violence.
Alan Dershowitz
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Freedom of speech should not be used as a reason to justify violent reactions.

This quote emphasizes the importance of freedom of speech as a fundamental right, suggesting that while individuals may feel offended by certain expressions, such feelings should not provoke violent responses. It advocates for tolerance and understanding in a society where diverse opinions exist, highlighting the need to address disagreements through dialogue rather than aggression.

Themes

FreedomSpeechViolenceToleranceOffenseDialogue

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a debate about the limits of free speech.

More from Alan Dershowitz

Ideas don't desert you; ideas aren't treasonous to you, but people can be.
Alan DershowitzRead
Ed Koch will never "rest in peace." That was not his way. He was always nervously squirming, while making others squirm as well. Comfort was not his goal. He understood that to be a proud and assertive Jew meant never being able to leave a sigh of relief and say "it's over, we are at peace, we can now put down our guard and relax."
Alan DershowitzRead
It's never acceptable to target civilians. It violates the Geneva Accords, it violates the international law of war and it violates all principles of morality.
Alan DershowitzRead
When I was growing up, my mother would always say, 'It will go on your permanent record.' There was no 'permanent record.' If there were a 'permanent record,' I'd never be able to be a lawyer. I was such a bum, in elementary school and high school... There is a permanent record today and it's called the Internet.
Alan DershowitzRead
A good lawyer knows how to shut up when he's won his case.
Alan DershowitzRead
Scientists search for truth. Philosophers search for morality. A criminal trial searches for only one result: proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
Alan DershowitzRead

Similar quotes

To die; to decide to die; that's much easier for an adolescent than for an adult. What? Doesn't death strip an adolescent of a far larger portion of future? Certainly it does, but for a young person, the future is a remote, abstract, unreal thing he doesn't really believe in.
Milan KunderaRead
The trifling economy of paper, as a cheaper medium, or its convenience for transmission, weighs nothing in opposition to the advantages of the precious metals it is liable to be abused, has been, is, and forever will be abused, in every country in which it is permitted.
Thomas JeffersonRead
There is not, in the Constitution, a syllable that implies that persons, born within the territorial limits of the United States, have allegiance imposed upon them on account of their birth in the country, or that they will be judged by any different rule, on the subject of treason, than persons of foreign birth.
Lysander SpoonerRead
O Lord! You are the guide of those who are passing through the Valley of Bewilderment. If I am a heretic, enlarge my heresy.
Mansur Al-HallajRead
We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.
Stephen HawkingRead
We are concerned with that curious bunch of nonconformists who explain their participation in negative terms: that bunch of do-gooders that goes under all sorts of names - liberals, leftists, etc. These are the people who argue that they are not responsible for white racism and the country's 'inhumanity to the black man.'
Steven BikoRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.