Dissent Quotes - Page 8

• The use of 'conspiracy theory' as a derogatory - as an epithet almost - is something the propagandists have perfected over the decades, and it's a useful tool for eliminating articulate dissent and other points of view, and information that might be inconvenient for a policy agenda.

  Chris Sanders

  Views, Use, Agendas

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• Parliament is for discussion. Parliament is to show dissent. Parliament is to give an argument for one's opposition, to present an argument when they support. To uphold this basic spirit of Parliament, is the responsibility of every person who values democracy. It is the responsibility of those present in the Parliament and those outside. It is the responsibility of those in power and those not in power. This is a matter of spirit and it should be followed.

  Narendra Modi

  Responsibility, Giving, Support

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.in

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• Disagreement produces debate but dissent produces dissension. Dissent (which come from the Latin, dis and sentire) means originally to feel apart from others. People who disagree have an argument, but people who dissent have a quarrel. People may disagree and both may count themselves in the majority. But a person who dissents is by definition in a minority. A liberal society thrives on disagreement but is killed by dissension. Disagreement is the life blood of democracy, dissension is its cancer.

  Daniel J. Boorstin

  Cancer, Latin, Mean

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• During President George W. Bush's two terms, you couldn't drive far without seeing a particular bumper sticker: Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. Now that Democrats control the White House and Congress, the left treats dissent as the lowest form of treason.

  Monica Crowley

  Two, White, House

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• I personally am inclined to approach [housework] the way governments treat dissent: ignore it until it revolts.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Government, Way, Treats

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• These unwritten amenities have been in part responsible for giving our people the feeling of independence and self-confidence, the feeling of creativity. These amenities have dignified the right of dissent and have honored the right to be nonconformists and the right to defy submissiveness. They have encouraged lives of high spirits rather than hushed, suffocating silence.

  William O. Douglas

  Creativity, Self Confidence, Government

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• I do not say this, that I think there should be no difference of opinions in conversation, nor opposition in men's discourses... 'Tis not the owning one's dissent from another, that I speak against, but the manner of doing it.

  John Locke

  Men, Thinking, Differences

  John Locke, George Berkeley (2010). “Locke, Berkely & Hume”, p.134, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Even when alternative views are clearly wrong, being exposed to them still expands our creative potential. In a way, the power of dissent is the power of surprise. After hearing someone shout out an errant answer, we work to understand it, which causes us to reassess our initial assumptions and try out new perspectives. “Authentic dissent can be difficult, but it’s always invigorating,” Nemeth says. “It wakes us right up.”

  Jonah Lehrer

  Views, California, Perspective

  "Groupthink: The brainstorming myth" by Jonah Lehrer, www.newyorker.com. January 30, 2012.

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• We must dissent from the fear.

  Thurgood Marshall

  Racism And Prejudice, Mistrust

  Thurgood Marshall, J. Clay Smith, Jr. (2003). “Supreme Justice: Speeches and Writings”, p.15, University of Pennsylvania Press

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• Unlike lions and dogs, we are a dissenting animal. We need to dissent in the same way that we need to travel, to make money, to keep a record of our time on earth and in dream, and to leave a permanent mark. Dissension is a drive, like those drives.

  Carol Bly

  Dream, Dog, Animal

  Carol Bly (1988). “Letters from the Country”, HarperCollins

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• Nevertheless, what was made in the hope of transforming the world need not be rejected because it failed to do so – otherwise, one would also have to throw out a good deal of the greatest painting and poetry of the nineteenth century. An objective political failure can still work as a model of intellectual affirmation or dissent.

  Robert Hughes

  Political, Intellectual, World

  Robert Hughes (2013). “The Shock of the New”, Knopf

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• The President proclaims war, and those Senators who dissent are not those who know better, but those who can afford to...Democracy becomes a government of bullies tempered by editors.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  War, Government, Editors

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• I tell myself I use art to promote dissent, but maybe I am just using dissent to promote my art. I plead not guilty to selling out. But I plead it from a bigger house than I used to live in.

  Banksy

  Art, House, Guilty

  Source: www.timeout.com

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• Nations need to understand their own strengths and weaknesses, and India's tradition of dissent and democratic debate is a positive aspect.

  Rosabeth Moss Kanter

  Weakness, India, Needs

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• Real unity tolerates dissent and rejoices in variety of outlook and tradition, recognizes that it is man's destiny to unite and not divide, and understands that creating proletariats and scapegoats and second-class citizens is a mean and contemptible activity.

  Northrop Frye

  Real, Mean, Destiny

  Northrop Frye, Robert D. Denham, Jean O'Grady, David Staines (2003). “Northrop Frye on Canada”, p.416, University of Toronto Press

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• I'm kind of perverse in that I think pessimism is helpful. My pessimism is my own kind of patriotism. My dissent.

  Tracy Letts

  Thinking, Helpful, Kind

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• If what the philosophers say be true, that all men's actions proceed from one source; that as they assent from a persuasion that a thing is so, and dissent from a persuasion that it is not, and suspend their judgment from a persuasion that it is uncertain, so likewise they seek a thing from a persuasion that it is for their advantage.

  Epictetus

  Men, Action, Philosopher

  Epictetus (1866). “The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments”, p.54

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• I wish to suggest that ample opportunity does exist for dissent, for protest, and for nonconformity. But I must also say that the right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.

  Hubert H. Humphrey

  Taken, Opportunity, Wish

  Address to the National Student Council, 1965.

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• growth requires purposeful division. Responsible dissent is the essence of democracy.

  Abigail McCarthy

  Essence, Growth, Democracy

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• The Head and the body are Christ wholly and entirely. The Head is the only begotten Son of God, the body is His Church; the bridegroom and the bride, two in one flesh. All who dissent from the Scriptures concerning Christ, although they may be found in all places in which the Church is found, are not in the Church; and again all those who agree with the Scriptures concerning the Head, and do not communicate in the unity of the Church, are not in the Church.

  Saint Augustine

  Son, Two, Unity

  "Publications of the Catholic Truth Society", London, Volume 30, (p. 41), 1896.

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• In sum, the Court's conclusion that a constitutionally adequate recount is impractical is a prophecy the Court's own judgment will not allow to be tested. Such an untested prophecy should not decide the Presidency of the United States.

  Ruth Bader Ginsburg

  United States, Adequate, Judgment

  "Justice Ginsburg's Dissent". www.washingtonpost.com. December 13, 2000.

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• Bad news drives out good news. The irrational is more controversial than the rational. Concurrence can no longer compete with dissent. One minute of Eldridge Cleaver is worth ten minutes of Roy Wilkins. The labor crises settled at the negotiating table is nothing compared to the confrontation that results in a strike ... normality has become the nemesis of network news.

  Spiro T. Agnew

  News, Tables, Controversial

  John R. Coyne, Spiro T. Agnew (1972). “The Impudent Snobs: Agnew Vs. the Intellectual Establishment”, New Rochelle, N.Y. : Arlington House

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• But you go to a great school, not for knowledge so much as for arts and habits; for the habit of attention, for the art of expression, for the art of assuming at a moment's notice a new intellectual posture, for the art of entering quickly into another person's thoughts, for the habit of submitting to censure and refutation, for the art of indicating assent or dissent in graduated terms, for the habit of regarding minute points of accuracy, for the habit of working out what is possible in a given time, for taste, for discrimination, for mental courage and mental soberness.

  William Johnson Cory

  Art, School, Expression

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• Oh judge! Your damn laws! The good people don't need them, and the bad people don't obey them.

  Ammon Hennacy

  Responsibility, Law, People

  "Voices from the Catholic Worker". Book by Rosalie Riegle Troester (p. 114), 1993.

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• To the everlasting credit of the people of District 12, not one person claps. Not even the ones holding betting slips, the ones who are usually beyond caring. Possibly because they know me from the Hob, or knew my father, or have encountered Prim, who no one could help loving. 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

  Father, Caring, People

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