Freedom of thought (also called the freedom of conscience or ideas) is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of others' viewpoints.
It is different from and not to be confused with the concept of freedom of speech or expression.
Read more about Freedom Of Thought: Overview, Suppression
Famous quotes containing the words Freedom Of Thought, freedom of, freedom and/or thought:
“The real stumbling-block of totalitarian régimes is not the spiritual need of men for freedom of thought; it is men’s inability to stand the physical and nervous strain of a permanent state of excitement, except during a few years of their youth.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)
“Only the freedom of mind can prevent the state from becoming totalitarian and from issuing totalitarian demands.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)
“How is freedom measured, in individuals as in nations? By the resistance which has to be overcome, by the effort it costs to stay aloft. One would have to seek the highest type of free man where the greatest resistance is constantly being overcome: five steps from tyranny, near the threshold of the danger of servitude.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Even in the pink crib
the somehow deficient,
the somehow maimed,
are thought to have
a special pipeline to the mystical....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)