Apology For Printers

Being frequently censur'd and condemn'd by different Persons for printing Things which they say ought not to be printed, I have sometimes thought it might be necessary to make a standing Apology for my self, and publish it once a Year, to be read upon all Occasions of that Nature. 

I request all who are angry with me on the Account of printing things they don't like, calmly to consider these following Particulars.  ...

That if all Printers were determin'd not to print any thing till they were sure it would offend no body, there would be very little printed.  ...

That if all the People of different Opinions in this Province would engage to give me as much for not printing things they don't like, as I can get by printing them, I should probably live a very easy Life; and if all Printers were every where so dealt by, there would be very little printed.  ...

I consider the Variety of Humours among Men, and despair of pleasing every Body; yet I shall not therefore leave off Printing.

-- Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790), one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, and statesman, Apology for Printers, The Pennsylvania Gazette, 10 June 1731 (h/t Zandar)