Dissent Quotes

The United States can… be proud that it has institutions and a structure that permit its citizens to express honest dissent, even though those who do so may be maligned by the highest official in the land.

That erroneous assumption is to the effect that the aim of public education is to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence, and so make them fit to discharge the duties of citizenship in an enlightened and independent manner. Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim of public […]

The fundamentalist mind, running in a single rut for fifty years, is now quite unable to comprehend dissent from its basic superstitions, or to grant any common honesty, or even any decency, to those who reject them.

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.

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.