Subversion Quotes

• Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.

  William O. Douglas

  Teaching, Rights In America, Political Revolution

  "The One Un-American Act". William O. Douglas' speech to the Author's Guild Council in New York on receiving the 1951 Lauterbach Award, December 3, 1952.

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• We are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence — on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day

  John F. Kennedy

  Mean, Army, Night

  Address to the American Newspaper Publishers, delivered 27 April 1961, Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York

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• The art of subversion, of revolution, is to dislodge established customs by probing down to their origins in order to show how they lack authority and justice.

  Blaise Pascal

  Art, Order, Justice

  Blaise Pascal (1966). “Pascal Pensées”, Penguin Classics

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• We may be so eager to protect the right to dissent that we lose sight of the difference between dissent and subversion.

  Richard Perle

  Sight, Differences, May

  David Frum, Richard Perle (2003). “An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror”, p.66, Random House

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• All political revolutions, not affected by foreign conquest, originate in moral revolutions. The subversion of established institutions is merely one consequence of the previous subversion of established opinions.

  John Stuart Mill

  Political Revolution, Moral, Opinion

  John Stuart Mill (2009). “Dissertations and Discussions”, p.56, Cosimo, Inc.

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• May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Peace, War, Military

  Eisenhower, Dwight D. (1960). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1954”, p.524, Best Books on

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• The ultimate sophistication of subversion is to take over the government, not by unlawful but by lawful means.

  Brian Crozier

  Mean, Government, Unlawful

  Brian Crozier (1993). “Free Agent: The Unseen War 1941-1991”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• With what moral authority can they speak of human rights - the rulers of a nation in which the millionaire and beggar coexist; the Indian is exterminated; the black man is discriminated against; the woman is prostituted; and the great masses of Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, and Latin Americans are scorned, exploited, and humiliated? How can they do this - the bosses of an empire where the mafia, gambling, and child prostitution are imposed; where the CIA organizes plans of global subversion and espionage, and the Pentagon creates neutron bombs capable of preserving material assets and wiping out human beings.

  Fidel Castro

  Latin, War, Men

  Fidel Castro's speech on the 25th anniversary of the Moncada Barracks attack, July 26, 1978.

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• 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.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Patriotic, Men, America

  Speech at Columbia University's bicentennial on May 31, 1954. "Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower". Book by Dwight D. Eisenhower, p. 524, 1961.

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• An attack on values is inevitably seen as an act of subversion.

  Garrett Hardin

  Values

  Garrett James Hardin (1982). “Naked emperors: essays of a taboo-stalker”, Course Technology Ptr

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• Instead of stubbornly attempting to use surrealism for purposes of subversion, it is necessary to try to make of surrealism something as solid, complete and classic as the works of museums.

  Salvador Dali

  Museums, Trying, Purpose

  Salvador Dali (2013). “The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí”, p.397, Courier Corporation

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• Comedy makes the subversion of the existing state of affairs possible.

  Dario Fo

  Comedy, Affair, States

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• The Western musical canon came about not merely by accumulation, but by opposition and subversion, both to the ruling powers on whom composers depended for their livelihoods and to other musics.

  Brian Ferneyhough

  Musical, Accumulation, Ruling

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• You can't be suspicious of a tree, or accuse a bird or a squirrel of subversion or challenge the ideology of a violet.

  Hal Borland

  Nature, Squirrels, Earth Day

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• Nixon's attempts to order subversion of various departments was bound to come out in some form.

  Bob Woodward

  Order, Form, Various

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• Any startling piece of work has a subversive element in it, a delicious element often. Subversion is only disagreeable when it manifests in political or social activity.

  Leonard Cohen

  Political, Elements, Pieces

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• The sight of women talking together has always made men uneasy; nowadays it means rank subversion.

  Germaine Greer

  Mean, Men, Sight

  Germaine Greer (1972). “The female eunuch”

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• In a democracy - even if it is a so-called democracy like our white-?litist one - the greatest veneration one can show the rule of law is to keep a watch on it, and to reserve the right to judge unjust laws and the subversion of the function of the law by the power of the state. That vigilance is the most important proof of respect for the law.

  Nadine Gordimer

  Law, White, Judging

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• [All religious sects] dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight; and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversion of the duperies in which they live.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Faith Religion, Daylight

  Thomas Jefferson (1964). “The Jefferson Bible: With the Annotated Commentaries on Religion of Thomas Jefferson”

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• Preachers dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Faith Religion, Daylight, Witch

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• Only conservatives believe that subversion is still being carried on in the arts and that society is being shaken by it.

  Harold Rosenberg

  Art, Believe, Shock

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• To promote a woman to bear rule, superiority, dominion, or empire above any realm, nation, or city, is repugnant to nature; contumely to God, a thing most contrary to his revealed will and approved ordinance; and finally, it is the subversion of good order, of all equity and justice.

  John Knox

  Order, Cities, Justice

  1558 First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women.

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• Only conservatives believe that subversion is still being carried on in the arts and that society is being shaken by it. Advanced art today is no longer a cause -it contains no moral imperative. There is no virtue in clinging to principles and standards, no vice in selling or in selling out.

  Harold Rosenberg

  Art, Believe, Today

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• The act of greatest subversion ... is the one of indifference. A man, or a group, finds it unbearable that someone can be simply uninterested in his, or its, convictions. ... There is a degree of complicity, or mutual respect, between the believer and the man who attacks his beliefs (the revolutionary), for the latter takes them seriously.

  John Carroll

  Men, Groups, Degrees

  John Carroll (2010). “Break-Out from the Crystal Palace: The Anarcho-Psychological Critique: Stirner, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky”, p.43, Taylor & Francis

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• And who can doubt that it will lead to the worst disorders when minds created free by God are compelled to submit slavishly to an outside will? When we are told to deny our senses and subject them to the whim of others? When people devoid of whatsoever competence are made judges over experts and are granted authority to treat them as they please? These are the novelties which are apt to bring about the ruin of commonwealths and the subversion of the state.

  Galileo Galilei

  Math, People, Judging

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