Alan Barth famous quotes

Thought that is silenced is always rebellious. Majorities, of course, are often mistaken. This is why the silencing of minorities is necessarily dangerous. Criticism and dissent are the indispensable antidote to major delusions.
-- Alan Barth

#Criticism #Civil Rights #Majority

The notion that the church, the press, and the universities should serve the state is essentially a Communist notion. In a free society these institutions must be wholly free - which is to say that their function is to serve as checks upon the state.
-- Alan Barth

#Church #Liberty #Communist

News is only the first rough draft of history.
-- Alan Barth

#Rough Drafts #News #Firsts

Character assassination is at once easier and surer than physical assault; and it involves far less risk for the assassin. It leaves him free to commit the same deed over and over again, and may, indeed, win him the honors of a hero in the country of his victims.
-- Alan Barth

#Country #Hero #Character

Thought that is silenced is always rebellious.
-- Alan Barth

#Rebellious

Criticism and dissent are the indispensable antidote to major delusions.
-- Alan Barth

#Criticism #Delusion #Indispensable

Loyalty in a free society depends upon the toleration of disloyalty.
-- Alan Barth

#Loyalty #Disloyalty #Miscellaneous

Tolerance of diversity is imperative, because without it, life would lose its savor. Progress in the arts, in the sciences, in the patterns of social adjustment springs from diversity and depends upon a tolerance of individual deviations from conventional ways and attitudes.
-- Alan Barth

#Art #Attitude #Spring

[Many artists], even the greatest ones, are not sure of their own existence. So they search for proof, they judge, they condemn. It strengthens them, it is the beginnings of existence. They are alone!

The price of leadership is criticism.

And you, my Critics! in the chequer'd shade, Admire new light thro' holes yourselves have made.

I lose my patience, and I own it too, When works are censur'd, not as bad but new; While if our Elders break all reason's laws, These fools demand not pardon but Applause.

Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss.

Justice is indivisible. You can't decide who gets civil rights and who doesn't.

Every segment of our population, and every individual, has a right to expect from his government a fair deal.

An apology for the actions of some troops who, of course, are not representative of the majority of the armed forces here, I think that would have been useful and it would have helped to some extent.

I'm part of the mushball middle. I consider 'confused' the majority position because, thankfully, most people would rather be uncertain some of the time than 100% positive all the time - even when they're wrong.

A decline in the national housing price level would need to be substantial to trigger a significant rise in foreclosures, because the vast majority of homeowners have built up substantial equity in their homes despite large mortgage-market financed withdrawals of home equity in recent years.