free speech is most important right

Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, founded in injustice and wrong, are sure to tremble, if men are allowed to reason...There can be no right of speech where any man...[is] compelled to suppress his honest sentiments. Equally clear is the right to hear. To suppress free speech is a double wrong.