Friday, July 29, 2016

Above all liberties

John Milton on freedom of thought, speech, press — and "safe spaces":
And though all the windes of doctrin were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licencing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falshood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the wors, in a free and open encounter. ....

I cannot praise a fugitive and cloister'd vertue, unexercis'd & unbreath'd, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortall garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat. ....

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.
Areopagitica, 1644

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