Dissent Quotes - Page 12

• The press exerts the pressure of dissent on officials otherwise inclined to rest content with the congratulations of their retainers.

  Bill Vaughan

  Congratulations, Pressure, Retainers

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• Majority decisions tend to be made without engaging the systematic thought and critical thinking skills of the individuals in the group. Given the force of the group's normative power to shape the opinions of the followers who conform without thinking things through, they are often taken at face value. The persistent minority forces the others to process the relevant information more mindfully. Research shows that the deciscions of a group as a whole are more thoughtful and creative when there is minority dissent than when it is absent.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Taken, Thoughtful, Thinking

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• Procedure is the bone structure of a democratic society. Our scheme of law affords great latitude for dissent and opposition. It compels wide tolerance not only for their expression but also for the organization of people and forces to bring about the acceptance of the dissenter's claim....We have alternatives to violence.

  Abe Fortas

  Acceptance, Expression, Law

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• Freedom released the energies of the masses not by exhilarating but by unbalancing, irritating, and goading.

  Eric Hoffer

  Freedom, Energy, Mass

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• He who dictates and formulates the words and phrases we use, he who is master of the press and radio, is master of the mind. Repeat mechanically your assumptions and suggestions, diminish the opportunity for communicating dissent and opposition. This is the formula for political conditioning of the masses.

  Joost Meerloo

  Opportunity, Political, Mind

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• If you want to live a meaningfully better life, you're going to have to make the dangerous choice to dissent. A life lived meaningfully isn't denominated by digital friends, designer logos, or wads of paper notes. It's denominated by what you've lived, what it's worth to you, and what that's worth to humanity.

  Umair Haque

  Choices, Humanity, Paper

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• I disagree with the Supreme Court's decision and I agree with the dissent. What the court did not do on its last day in session, I will do on my first day if elected president of the United States, and that is I will act to repeal ObamaCare.

  Mitt Romney

  Obamacare, Decision, President

  Romney remarks on high court ruling upholding Obama health care law, www.foxnews.com. June 28, 2012.

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• Though we are politically enemies, yet with regard to Science it is presumable we shall not dissent from the practice of civilized people in promoting it

  John Hancock

  Patriotic, Practice, People

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• Free thought means fearless thought. It is not deterred by legal penalties, nor by spiritual consequences. Dissent from the Bible does not alarm the true investigator, who takes truth for authority not authority for truth. The thinker who is really free, is independent; he is under no dread; he yields to no menace; he is not dismayed by law, nor custom, nor pulpits, nor society-whose opinion appals so many. He who has the manly passion of free thought, has no fear of anything, save the fear of error.

  George Holyoake

  Spiritual, Passion, Mean

  George Jacob Holyoake (1896). “English Secularism: A Confession of Belief”, p.18, Library of Alexandria

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• Truth affirms freedom of speech. Putin is no friend of reli - freedom of speech. Putin is an enemy of freedom of religion. The U.S. celebrates freedom of religion. Putin is an enemy of the free press. The U.S. celebrates free press. Putin is an enemy of political dissent. The U.S. celebrates political dissent and the right for people to argue free from violence about places or ideas that are in conflict.

  Benjamin E. Sasse

  Ideas, People, Political

  Source: abcnews.go.com

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• So instead of acknowledging applause, I stand there unmoving while they take part in the boldest form of dissent they can manage. Silence. Which says we do not agree. We do not condone. All of this is wrong.

  Suzanne Collins

  Silence, Form, Applause

  Suzanne Collins (2009). “The Hunger Games”, p.24, Scholastic Inc.

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• The highest form of patriotism is dissent.

  Matthew Dowd

  Patriotic, Political, Form

  Source: abcnews.go.com

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• Our nations are run by absolute worthless scum, our streets are taken over by sub-humans, the food we eat and the water we drink contains poison, our cultures are systematically replaced by "anti-culture", history is a big lie, et cetera et cetera. Of all the options I chose to start this blog, to spread dissent, to tell others - yes Burzum fans too - that there is an alternative to all of this.

  Varg Vikernes

  Running, Lying, Taken

  Source: heathenharvest.org

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• [Vladimir] Putin is an enemy of political dissent. The U.S. celebrates political dissent and the right for people to argue free from violence about places where our ideas are in conflict.

  Benjamin E. Sasse

  Ideas, People, Political

  Source: www.sfgate.com

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• In every one of us there are good seeds and bad. We have the seed of brotherhood, love, compassion, insight. But we have also the seed of anger, hate, dissent.

  Nhat Hanh

  Hate, Compassion, Brotherhood

  Interview with Oprah Winfrey, www.oprah.com.

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• Look at the global warming issue. Why are the left so angry? They appear to be getting everything they want. The Pope's on their side. Big governments are on their side. The United Nations is on their side, but we aren't and they're lived. And who do they focus on? The deniers. And who are they trying to destroy? The deniers. They cannot tolerate. They will not tolerate. They cannot handle dissent. They don't want it.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Issues, Government, Focus

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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• In most civil law systems there are no dissents. There is a single opinion for the court: it is unanimous; it is highly stylized; you can't tell which judge wrote it.

  Ruth Bader Ginsburg

  Law, Judging, Opinion

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• In addition to removing our democratically elected government, Israel wants to sow dissent among Palestinians by claiming that there is a serious leadership rivalry among us. I am compelled to dispel this notion definitively.

  Ismail Haniyeh

  Government, Israel, Want

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• The humanities teach us the value, even for business, of criticism and dissent. When there's a culture of going along to get along, where whistleblowers are discouraged, bad things happen and businesses implode.

  Martha C. Nussbaum

  Humanity, Criticism, Culture

  Source: www.neh.gov

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• What has happened now in mass media and advertising is not only that they've adopted the style and the look of fringe culture; that has been happening for a long time. What they've now done is gone a step further: They've now taken the very idea that there is any dissent at all - it doesn't even matter what form it takes - and made it part of how they're going to sell something.

  Mark Hosler

  Taken, Media, Ideas

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• Like 'em or hate 'em, these once peaceful gun owners of the '90s are feeling a lot like Jews of 1939 Germany. Maligned, lied about, persecuted and threatened. Afraid, confused and angry.

  Claire Wolfe

  Hate, Confused, Gun

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• As many truths as men. Occasionally, I glimpse a truer Truth, hiding in imperfect simulacrums of itself, but as I approach, it bestirs itself & moves deeper into the thorny swamp of dissent.

  David Mitchell

  Moving, Men, Glimpse

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• There are some serious limitations in Mo Yan's situation as a writer in China today - just as there are for Jia Zhangke, one of the world's greatest film directors. He can only phrase his dissent obliquely, in his art. Writers in "free" societies labor under no such constraints. They can write more or less whatever they want in both their fiction and their commentary. Yet so many of them look oddly inhibited, even timid, and depressingly a couple of prominent figures actually positioned themselves to the right of their governments, intelligence agencies, and corporations.

  Pankaj Mishra

  Art, Couple, Writing

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Puzzlement and doubt are, however, already crimes in the totalitarian state. The mind that is open for questions is open for dissent. In the totalitarian regime the doubting, inquisitive, and imaginative mind has to be suppressed. The totalitarian slave is only allowed to memorize, to salivate when the bell rings.

  Joost Meerloo

  Doubt, Mind, Bells

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• To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

  Barack Obama

  Mutual Interest, Hands, Way Forward

  First Presidential Inaugural Address, Delivered 20 January 2009

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