Skip to content

Liberal learning is both a safeguard against false ideas of freedom and a source of true ones.

— Alfred Whitney Griswold

Another quote →

Topics

Freedom

More quotes by Alfred Whitney Griswold

Could Hamlet have been written by a committee, or the Mona Lisa painted by a club? Could the New Testament have been composed as a conference report?

Self-respect cannot be hunted. It cannot be purchased.

In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas.

There are certain things in a man that have to be won, not forced; inspired, not compelled. Among these are many, I should say most, of the things that constitute the good life. All are essential to democracy. All are proof against its enemies.

Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education.

All Alfred Whitney Griswold quotes →

You may also like

You have to start with the truth. The truth is the only way that we can get anywhere. Because any decision-making that is based upon lies or ignorance can't lead to a good conclusion.

Julian Assange

What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence?

Abraham Lincoln

Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.

Freeman Dyson Infinite in All Directions (1988)

There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

Robert Anton Wilson

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Alfred Whitney Griswold (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.