Dissidents Quotes

• Heart is what drives us and determines our fate.

  Isabel Allende

  Inspirational, Success, New Year

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• The ultimate test of a society's freedom is not how it treats its good, obedient, compliant citizens; it's how it treats its dissidents.

  Glenn Greenwald

  Citizens, Tests, Treats

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• The dissident does not operate in the realm of genuine power at all. He is not seeking power. He has no desire for office and does not gather votes. He does not attempt to charm the public, he offers nothing and promises nothing. He can offer, if anything, only his own skin - and he offers it solely because he has no other way of affirming the truth he stands for. His actions simply articulate his dignity as a citizen, regardless of the cost.

  Vaclav Havel

  Truth, Power, Office

  "Living in Truth". Book by Vaclav Havel, 1986.

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• You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.

  Abbie Hoffman

  Freedom, Giving, Political

  Tikkun magazine, July-August 1989.

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• 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

  Responsibility, Careers, Patriotism

  "The Power of the Powerless". Book by Václav Havel, 1979.

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• Intellectual freedom is essential -- freedom to obtain and distribute information, freedom for open-minded and unfearing debate and freedom from pressure by officialdom and prejudices. Such freedom of thought is the only guarantee against an infection of people by mass myths, which, in the hands of treacherous hypocrites and demagogues, can be transformed into bloody dictatorship.

  Andrei Sakharov

  Freedom, Hypocrite, Hands

  Andrei D. Sakharov (1968). “Progress, coexistence, and intellectual freedom”

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• Rebels and dissidents challenge the complacent belief in a just world, and, as the theory would predict, they are usually denigrated for their efforts. While they are alive, they may be called 'cantankerous,' 'crazy,' 'hysterical,' 'uppity,' or 'duped.' Dead, some of them become saints and heroes, the sterling characters of history. It's a matter of proportion. One angry rebel is crazy, three is a conspiracy, 50 is a movement.

  Carol Tavris

  Crazy, Anger, Hero

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• The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.

  Noam Chomsky

  Smart, Thinking, Views

  Noam Chomsky (2013). “How the World Works”, p.234, Soft Skull Press

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• I've always thought that the most powerful weapon in the world was the bomb and that's why I gave it to my people, but I've come to the conclusion that the most powerful weapon in the world is not the bomb but it's the truth

  Andrei Sakharov

  Truth, Powerful, People

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• Acceptance by government of a dissident press is a measure of the maturity of a nation.

  William O. Douglas

  Acceptance, Maturity, Government

  William O. Douglas (1954). “An Almanac of Liberty”

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• It's very important to remember that the philosophers were social dissidents. They were social critics. The man in the street or woman in the street did not particularly cherish what they said. Socrates was killed.

  Rebecca Goldstein

  Men, Important, Philosopher

  "What Do We Have To Teach Plato?". "Here And Now" with Jeremy Hobson, news.stlpublicradio.org. April 22, 2014.

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• No matter the specific techniques involved, historically mass surveillance has had several constant attributes. Initially, it is always the country’s dissidents and marginalized who bear the brunt of the surveillance, leading those who support the government or are merely apathetic to mistakenly believe they are immune. And history shows that the mere existence of a mass surveillance apparatus, regardless of how it is used, is in itself sufficient to stifle dissent. A citizenry that is aware of always being watched quickly becomes a compliant and fearful one.

  Glenn Greenwald

  Country, Believe, Government

  Glenn Greenwald (2014). “No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA and the Surveillance State”, p.10, Penguin UK

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• Your rights matter, because you never know when you're going to need them.

  Edward Snowden

  Rights, Needs, Matter

  "Why 'I Have Nothing to Hide' Is a Terrible Defense of Minor Privacy Violations" by Natalie Shoemaker, bigthink.com.

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• Whenever there is injustice, oppression, aggression, violence, it's standard for it to be supported by those we now call "intellectuals," but typically not by all; there is typically a fringe of dissidents. With very rare exceptions - in fact, it's hard to think of any - they suffer in one or another way; how depends on the nature of the society.

  Noam Chomsky

  Thinking, Suffering, Way

  Source: chomsky.info

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• Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Country, Travel, Memories

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• In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.

  Nelson Mandela

  Responsibility, Way, Easier

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• Rebels and dissidents challenge the complacent belief in a just world, and they are usually denigrated for their efforts.

  Carol Tavris

  Effort, Challenges, Rebel

  Carol Tavris (1984). “Anger, the misunderstood emotion”, Touchstone

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• Dissidents are not imprisoned as in the domains of the Kremlin, in the old days. They do not have their brains blown out by elite forces armed and trained by the reigning superpower, as happens in Washington's domains - with no particular concern at home - an important fact, one of many that help us learn about ourselves, if we choose.

  Noam Chomsky

  Home, Brain, Important

  Source: www.publicanthropology.org

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• The role of dissident is not, and should not be, a claim of membership in a communion of saints. In other words, the more fallible the mammal, the truer the example.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Democracy, Saint, Roles

  Christopher Hitchens (2009). “Letters to a Young Contrarian”, p.94, Basic Books

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• If you are creative, you must be dissident.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Creative, Ifs

  Nawal El Saadawi (1997). “The Nawal El Saadawi Reader”, Zed Books

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• The "prophets" were what we would call dissident intellectuals. They provided critical geopolitical analysis, condemned the crimes of the powerful, called for justice and mercy for those who needed help, etc. I wouldn't personally endorse everything they said, any more than I would for critics of power and its crimes today. But rather generally I think they played an honorable role - and suffered accordingly.

  Noam Chomsky

  Powerful, Thinking, Justice

  Source: chomsky.info

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• In the life of the human spirit, words are action, much more so than many of us realize who live in countries where freedom of expression is taken for granted. The leaders of totalitarian nations understand this very well. The proof is that words are precisely the action for which dissidents in those countries are being persecuted.

  Jimmy Carter

  Country, Taken, Expression

  United States. President (1977-1981 : Carter), Jimmy Carter (1977). “Jimmy Carter”

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• Those of us and so many other stalwart critics and opponents and questioners and dissidents in conservative media were attacked for doing what those people in the mainstream media should have been doing. Do your job! Subject these political candidates to the same amount of scrutiny that you are now trying to compensate for with the incoming Trump administration!

  Michelle Malkin

  Jobs, Media, Should Have

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

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• To seek Truth is automatically a calling for the innate dissident and the subversive; how many are willing to give up safety and security for the perilous life of the spiritual revolutionary? How many are willing to truly learn that their own cherished concepts are wrong? Striking provocative or mysterious poses in the safety of Internet [social media] is far easier than taking the risks involved in the hard work of genuine initiation.

  Zeena Schreck

  Spiritual, Giving Up, Hard Work

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• The noble title of "dissident" must be earned rather than claimed; it connotes sacrifice and risk rather than mere disagreement.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Sacrifice, Risk, Titles

  Christopher Hitchens (2009). “Letters to a Young Contrarian”, p.1, Basic Books

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