Dissent Quotes

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• The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated.

  William Ellery Channing

  Topics in Democracy, Dissent, Politics

  Tags in Patriotism, War
• 

  Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it.

  Howard Zinn

  Topics in Democracy, Dissent

  Tags in Absolutely, Departure
• 

  Historically, the most terrible things – war, genocide, and slavery – have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience.

  Howard Zinn

  Topics in Dissent

  Tags in Injustice, War, Violence

•  Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.

  Harry S. Truman

  Topics in Dissent, Politics

• You’ve got to rattle your cage door. You’ve got to let them know that you’re in there, and that you want out. Make noise. Cause trouble. You may not win right away, but you’ll sure have a lot more fun.

  Florynce Kennedy

  Topics in Dissent

  Tags in Trouble, Fun, Sure

• It may well be that our means are fairly limited and our possibilities restricted when it comes to applying pressure on our government. But is this a reason to do nothing? Despair is nor an answer. Neither is resignation. Resignation only leads to indifference, which is not merely a sin but a punishment

  Elie Wiesel

  Topics in Dissent, Politics, Power

  Tags in Apathy, Government, Indifference, Despair

• Intellect does not attain its full force unless it attacks power.

  Madame de Stael

  Topics in Democracy, Dissent

  Tags in Enemies, Difficulties

• I have spent many years of my life in opposition and I rather like the role.

  Eleanor Roosevelt

  Topics in Democracy, Dissent

  Tags in Diversity, Enemies, Difficulties

• Nothing is complete and thus nothing is exempt from criticism.

  James Luther Adams

  Topics in Dissent, Perfection

  Tags in Criticism

• Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

  Martin Luther King Jr

  Topics in Dissent, Humanity

  Tags in Diversity, Creativity

• To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.

  Theodore H. White

  Topics in Dissent, Friendship

  Tags in Integrity/Individuality, Hero, Thinking, Courage

• We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.

  Edward R. Murrow

  Topics in Dissent

  Tags in Patriotism

• The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

  John Stuart Mill

  Topics in Dissent, Mistake, Truth

  Tags in Diversity, Perception, Opinion, Judgment

• Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.

  William O. Douglas

  Topics in Dissent

  Tags in Patriotism, Freedom

• We live in a country where we’re supposed to have freedom of the press and religious freedom, but I think to some degree, there’s a sense of fear in America today, that if you say the wrong thing, what some people will consider what is wrong, if you step out of line, if you dissent, whether you be an entertainer, that somehow and some way this government or the forces to be will come down on you.

  John L. Lewis

  Topics in Dissent

  Tags in Freedom

• It is hard for any one to be an honest politician who is not born and bred a Dissenter.

  William Hazlitt

  Topics in Dissent

  Tags in Politician, Hard

• You do not become a “dissident” just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You are cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. It begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society.

  Vaclav Havel

  Topics in Dissent

  Tags in Responsibility

• In contrast, fear societies are societies in which dissent is banned.

  Natan Sharansky

  Topics in Dissent

  Tags in Banned

• Free societies are societies in which the right of dissent is protected.

  Natan Sharansky

  Topics in Dissent

  Tags in Societies

• People may believe that there can be a society where dissent is not permitted, but which is nonetheless not a fear society because everyone agrees with one another and therefore no one wants to dissent.

  Natan Sharansky

  Topics in Dissent

  Tags in Permitted