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It is not true that liberty has developed among civilized men when anyone is free to set up a soapbox, is free to hire a hall where he may expound his opinions to those who are willing to listen. On the contrary, freedom of speech is established to achieve its essential purpose only when different opinions are expounded in the same hall to the same audience.
人人可以自由建立临时演讲台，可以自由租用一个大厅以便向愿意倾听的那些人阐述自己的意见，这并不真正表明自由已经在文明人中间得到发展。相反，只有在同一个大厅向同一批听众阐述不同的意见，这时才能说确立言论自由达到了它的根本目的。
For, while the right to talk may be the beginning of freedom, the necessity of listening is what makes the right important. Even in Russia and Germany a man may still stand in an open field and speak his mind. What matters is not the utterance of opinions. What matters is the confrontation of opinions in debate. No man can care profoundly that every fool should say what he likes. Nothing has been accomplished if the wisest man proclaims his wisdom in the middle of the Sahara Desert. This is the shadow. We have the substance of liberty when the fool is compelled to listen to the wise man and learn; when the wise man is compelled to take account of tiie fool, and to instruct him; when the wise man can increase his wisdom by hearing the judgment of his peers.
因为，尽管说话的权利可能是自由的开端，然而倾听的必要性才使得这种权利变得重要。即使在俄罗斯和德国，一个人也可以站在旷野里倾吐心声。关键并不在于表达意见，在于争论中各种意见的交锋。愚者个个想说什么就说什么，没有人会去肖真留意。最聪明的人在撒哈拉大沙漠中发表真知灼见的话，不会产生任何效果。这是虚幻的自由。愚者被迫倾听智者意见而且向他们学习，智者被迫考虑到愚者并且予以指教，智者依靠听取其他前辈的判断而增长智慧，那时我们才懂得自由的实质。
That is why civilized men must cherish liberty—as a means of promoting the discovery of truth. So we must not fix our whole attention on the right of anyone to hire his own hall, to rent his own broadcasting station, to distribute his own pamphlets. These rights are incidental; and though they must be preserved, they can be preserved only, by regarding them as incidental, as auxiliary to the substance of liberty that must be cherished and cultivated.
这就是文明人必须珍惜自由的道理一它是一种有助于发现真理的手段。所以我们不可把自己的全部注意力集中于下述权利：人人可以租用自己的大厅、租借自己的广播电台、散发自己的小册子。这些权利是附带性的，尽管必须予以保护，但是只有作为附带性的、作为必须珍惜和培养的自由的实质的附属品才能予以保护。
Freedom of speech is best conceived, therefore, by having in mind the picture of a place like the American Congress, an assembly where opposing views are represented, where ideas are not merely uttered but debated, or the British Parliament, where men who are free to speak are also compelled to answer. We may picture the true condition of freedom as existing in a place like a court of law, where witnesses testify and are cross-examined, where the lawyer argues against the opposing lawyer before the same judge and in the presence of one jury.
因此，最好这样来设想言论自由：头脑中出现美国国会这么个场所的情景，这是对立观点得以陈述的汇集处，各种思想不仅可以表达而且可以争论；或是想象英国议会，自由发言的议员也被迫作答。我们可以设想，自由的真实状态存在于法庭那样的地方，见证人作证并受到盘问，双方律师在同一位法官和同一个陪审团面前展开唇枪舌剑。
