Matthew Parris Quotes

10 Sourced Quotes

No constitution in history has been more uncompromising about free speech. Its defenders fight magnificent battles in that cause. The US Constitution slows the slither. But slows, not stops. Inch by inch and always after a pitched battle, the Supreme Court has allowed exceptions.

Matthew Parris
Your elephant seal has an issue with motivation: he is not a natural self-starter. Start him, however, and he goes, not like a rocket, but a sort of turbo-charged mega-caterpillar.

Matthew Parris
Being an MP feeds your vanity and starves your self-respect.

Matthew Parris
The PS mentality combines a secret consciousness of being in the majority with the pseudo-plaintive tone of the put-upon. The PS voice is confident of the sympathy of the pack. It is the whimper-bark of the natural bully, eternally convinced that his victim is picking the fight.

Matthew Parris
But surely the whole point of free speech is to challenge, and challenge majorities sometimes.... The right to lampoon (which, let's face it, really means "insult") is as important a part of free speech as is the right to make a serious argument. Mockery can bring down tyrants or tyrannical religions where courteous debate fails.

Matthew Parris
Since the dawn of man every politician has been torn between a wish to say something memorable, and a terror of saying something which is remembered.

Matthew Parris
Of Lady thatcher:
A big cat detained briefly in a poodle parlour, sharpening her claws on the velvet.

Matthew Parris
The problem is this: unless freedom of expression is an absolute, where do we draw the line?

Matthew Parris
Have you ever seen an elephant seal running? The earth shakes as great rolls of leather-bound blubber go rippling down his 12ft frame and he buckles and unbuckles along the beach. You too would move like this if someone tied your legs together and your hands to your sides and swaddled you in black foam-rubber.

Matthew Parris
When H L Mencken wrote "As democracy is perfected... the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron" he could foresee neither Donald Trump nor social media. But Mencken had it right.

Matthew Parris