Dissent Quotes

It’s a fact of our culture that the loudest mouths get the most airplay, and the loudmouths are saying now that in times of crisis it is treasonous to question our leaders. Nonsense. That kind of thinking let fascism grow out of the international depression of the 1930s. In critical times, our leaders need most […]

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.

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.

People who set up repressive machinery always think it’s going to be directed against the Bad Guys (whoever they think the Bad Guys are) and never against themselves.

Every day the airwaves are filled with warnings, veiled and unveiled threats, spewed invective and hatred directed at any voice of dissent. And the public, like so many relatives and friends that I saw this weekend, sit in mute opposition and in fear. I’m sick of hearing about Hollywood being against the war. Hollywood’s heavy […]

Our ability to disagree, and our inherent right to question our leaders and criticize their actions define who we are. To allow those rights to be taken away out of fear, to punish people for their beliefs, to limit access in the news media to differing opinions is to acknowledge our democracy’s defeat. These are […]

Now, when people like Sen. Daschle stand up in the Senate and attack the president one day before the war starts, then that, to me, borders on lack of patriotism and I think it is wrong… there are people… who have got so much money they feel ashamed of it and they hate America… They […]

How can we pay attention to this spoiled, affluent, bored, rock-throwing generation who only want to tear down America without offering any solutions? Sometimes I have just spent 40 minutes in a taxi trying to get through the 15 blocks to the TV host who has asked the question. I wonder from whom we should […]