Dissent Quotes

People who set up repressive machinery always think it’s going to be directed against the Bad Guys (whoever they think the Bad Guys are) and never against themselves.

Every day the airwaves are filled with warnings, veiled and unveiled threats, spewed invective and hatred directed at any voice of dissent. And the public, like so many relatives and friends that I saw this weekend, sit in mute opposition and in fear. I’m sick of hearing about Hollywood being against the war. Hollywood’s heavy […]

Our ability to disagree, and our inherent right to question our leaders and criticize their actions define who we are. To allow those rights to be taken away out of fear, to punish people for their beliefs, to limit access in the news media to differing opinions is to acknowledge our democracy’s defeat. These are […]

Members of Congress have a duty… Ours is a Constitutional duty to continue to raise questions about policies that put America’s sons and daughters in harm’s way and to oppose those policies when we believe that they are wrong. Likewise, citizens have a duty to question and to seek answers to their concerns. At times […]

Anyone who’s called a dissident in their own society is probably an honest person. There are things an honest person ought to be objecting to. Most people won’t do it. They support them, or they join in carrying them out. There’ll always be a scattering of people who try to point them out, and tell […]

Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels – men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.

Thought that is silenced is always rebellious… Majorities, of course, are often mistaken. This is why the silencing of minorities is always dangerous. Criticism and dissent are the indispensable antidote to major delusions.

When you’ve written to your President, to your congressman, to your senator and nothing, nothing has come of it, you take to the streets.