Henry Steele Commager Quotes

Most popular Henry Steele Commager Quotes

History is organized memory, and the organization is all important!
— Henry Steele Commager A Study of History

history

America was born of revolt, flourished on dissent, became great through experimentation.
— Henry Steele Commager Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent

dissent

Free society must fertilize the soil in which non-conformity and dissent and individualism can grow.
— Henry Steele Commager

dissent

If our democracy is to flourish, it must have criticism; if our government is to function it must have dissent.
— Henry Steele Commager Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent

dissent

A free society cherishes non-conformity.  It knows that from a non-conformist, from the eccentric, have come many of the great ideas of freedom.
— Henry Steele Commager

eccentricity conformity

Our tradition is one of protest and revolt, and it is stultifying to celebrate the rebels of the past while we silence the rebels of the present.
— Henry Steele Commager Freedom, Loyalty and Dissent

protest

Censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion, incapable, that is, of doing an honest or intelligent job.
— Henry Steele Commager Freedom, Loyalty and Dissent

censorship