I’m looking for interesting or amusing epigraphs for various sections of my First Amendment textbook — quotes from books or poems that touch on the topic but from a nonlegal perspective. Here are some examples:
- From the section on advocacy of violent conduct:
They never told the [raging] crowd to [flay] a woman’s hide,
They never marked a man for death—what fault of theirs he died? —
They only said ‘intimidate,’ and talked and went away —
By God, the boys that did the work were braver men than they!
Their sin it was that fed the fire — small blame to them that heard —
The boys get drunk on rhetoric, and madden at a word — …
If words are words, or death is death, or powder sends the ball,
[They] spoke the words that sped the shot — the curse be on [them] all.
— Rudyard Kipling, “Cleared” - From the section on Communist advocacy:
Sam Goldwyn said, ‘How’m I gonna do decent pictures when all my good writers are in jail?’ Then he added, the infallible Goldwyn, ‘Don’t misunderstand me, they all ought to be hung.’ Mr. Goldwyn didn’t know about ‘hanged.’ That’s all there is to say.
— Dorothy Parker, Interview, in Writers at Work - From the section on fighting words:
Trampas (Walter Huston): “Now who’s talkin’ to you?”
Virginian (Gary Cooper): “I’m talking to you, Trampas.”
Trampas: “When I want to know anything from you I’ll tell you, you long-legged son-of-a-—.”
Virginian pulls out gun.
Virginian: “If you want to call me that, smile.”
Trampas: “With a gun against my belly I — I always smile.”
— Owen Wister, The Virginian
I don’t insist that I agree with the sentiment behind the epigraph (if there is such a sentiment), so long as I think it’s interesting or amusing.
Can any of you suggest such epigraphs that are related to various free speech issues, religious freedom issues, church-state issues, and the like? If so, please post them in the comments. Thanks!
UPDATE: Let me a bit more specific: I’m not looking for stirring defenses of free speech, or other aphorisms about how religiosity or speech or skepticism or whatever else is important. I’d prefer things that are funny or wry, or that otherwise illustrate some aspect of the topic without simply announcing an ideological position. The Kipling quote shows that I don’t mind things that do express a view, though even that was meant as a commentary on one particular form of incitement, not about free speech theory generally.
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