It is a socialist idea that making profits is a vice; I consider the real vice is making losses.
The United States is a land of free speech. Nowhere is speech freer - not even here where we sedulously cultivate it even in its most repulsive form.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the value of free speech, even when it encompasses distasteful opinions.
Winston Churchill's quote reflects the fundamental principle of freedom of expression in the United States, highlighting that this nation guarantees the right to speak freely, irrespective of the content of that speech. The reference to cultivating free speech in its most 'repulsive form' underscores the importance of protecting all speech, not just that which is agreeable or popular, as a cornerstone of democracy and individual liberties.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about censorship, one might quote Churchill to highlight the importance of allowing all forms of speech, even those that are controversial.
More from Winston Churchill
All quotes βThe United States is like a gigantic boiler. Once the fire is lit under it, there's no limit to the power it can generate.
Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.
I will not pretend that if I had to choose between communism and Nazism I would choose communism.
Mountaintops inspire leaders but valleys mature them.
True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
Similar quotes
The problem is not with the faith, but with the faithful
The mind becomes accustomed to things by the habitual sight of them, and neither wonders nor inquires about the reasons for things it sees all the time.
Everyone in the street where I grew up was given the same message: You can be anything; you can do anything. That wasn't extraordinary; that was ordinary for us. My folks didn't believe in black exceptionalism. There's nothing exceptional about 'You can have that, too' - except when it comes to justice. You can't have that.
The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil water-way leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky--seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.
The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
Nothing is harder to see into thanpeoples nature. The sage looks at subtle phenomena and listens tosmall voices. This harmonizes the outside with the inside and the inside with the outside.