Quotes and Sayings about Dissent
"Dissent is the native activity of the scientist, and it has got him into a good deal of trouble in the last years. But if that is cut off, what is left will not be a scientist. And I doubt whether it will be a man."
- Jacob Bronowski
(Related: Dissent, Doubt, Man, Trouble, Will, Years)
"The often cruel behavior of Christians toward unbelievers and even toward dissenters among themselves is shocking evidence of the function of that image in relation to values and behavior."
- Carol P. Christ
(Related: Values, Behavior)
"The rightful claim to dissent is an existential right of the individual."
- Friedrich Durrenmatt
(Related: Dissent, Right)
"No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots."
- Barbara Ehrenreich
(Related: Patriotism, Dissent, Duty, Hell, Rebellion)
"May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
(Related: Dissent, May)
"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
(Related: Men, Women, America, Blood, Dissent, Doctrine, May, Spirit)
"In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith."
- J. William Fulbright
(Related: Faith, Act, Democracy, Dissent)
"In a democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is not in its taste, but in its effects."
- James W. Fulbright
(Related: Faith, Act, Democracy, Dissent, Medicine, Taste, Value)
"Dissents speak to a future age."
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg
(Related: Age, Future)
"So that's the dissenter's hope: that they are writing not for today but for tomorrow."
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg
(Related: Today, Tomorrow, Writing)
"In the end it is worse to suppress dissent than to run the risk of heresy."
- Learned Hand
(Related: Dissent, End, Heresy, Risk)
"It is hard for any one to be an honest politician who is not born and bred a Dissenter."
- William Hazlitt
"So now is the time, more than ever, for those who truly value all the principles of democracy, especially including dissent, to be the most forceful in speaking up, standing up and speaking out."
- Jim Hightower
(Related: Time, Democracy, Dissent, Now, Principles, Value)
"A dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority: what it abominates most is the dissent of the majority."
- Eric Hoffer
(Related: Dissent, Majority, Minority, Will)
"Dissents are appeals to the brooding spirit of the law, to the intelligence of another day."
- Charles Evans Hughes
(Related: Intelligence, Day, Law, Spirit)
"In a number of cases dissenting opinions have in time become the law."
- Charles Evans Hughes
(Related: Time, Law, Opinions)
"Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate."
- Hubert H. Humphrey
(Related: Debate, Dissent, Freedom)
"Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard."
- Robert Jackson
(Related: Dissent, Opinion)
"When a man fails to see the truth of certain generally accepted views, there is no law compelling him to provoke animosity by announcing his dissent."
- George Henry Lewes
(Related: Truth, Dissent, Law, Man)
"There are men - now in power in this country - who do not respect dissent, who cannot cope with turmoil, and who believe that the people of America are ready to support repression as long as it is done with a quiet voice and a business suit."
- John Lindsay
(Related: Business, Men, Power, People, America, Country, Dissent, Now, Quiet, Repression, Respect, Support, Voice)
"Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters."
- Rosa Luxemburg
(Related: Freedom)
"The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself."
- Archibald MacLeish
(Related: Life, Being, Moments)
"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it."
- Edward R. Murrow
(Related: Soul, America, Dissent, Opposition)
"We may be so eager to protect the right to dissent that we lose sight of the difference between dissent and subversion."
- Richard Perle
(Related: Difference, Dissent, May, Right, Sight)
"It's so easy for propaganda to work, and dissent to be mocked."
- Harold Pinter
(Related: Work, Dissent, Propaganda)
"Science exists, moreover, only as a journey toward troth. Stifle dissent and you end that journey."
- John Charles Polanyi
(Related: Science, Dissent, End, Journey)
"It's much easier to make jokes about sensitive issues if there is some dissent, some conflict."
- Mo Rocca
(Related: Conflict, Dissent, Jokes)
"Some of my ancestors were religious dissenters who came to America over three hundred years ago. Others were abolitionists in New England in the eighteen forties and fifties."
- Pete Seeger
(Related: America, England, Religious, Years)
"Down through the centuries, this trick has been tried by various establishments throughout the world. They force people to get involved in the kind of examination that has only one aim and that is to stamp out dissent."
- Pete Seeger
(Related: People, Dissent, Examination, Force, World)
"Neither with those nor with the others, with all I agree and dissent; in all part of truth and part of error must be seen."
- Michael Servetus
(Related: Truth, Dissent, Error)
"Free societies are societies in which the right of dissent is protected."
- Natan Sharansky
(Related: Dissent, Right)
"In contrast, fear societies are societies in which dissent is banned."
- Natan Sharansky
(Related: Fear, Contrast, Dissent)
"Will dissent be permitted? The answer to that question will determine whether the society is a free society or a fear society."
- Natan Sharansky
(Related: Society, Fear, Dissent, Question, Will)
"People may believe that there can be a society where dissent is not permitted, but which is nonetheless not a fear society because everyone agrees with one another and therefore no one wants to dissent."
- Natan Sharansky
(Related: Society, People, Fear, Dissent, May)
"Discussion in America means dissent."
- James Thurber
(Related: America, Dissent)
"The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent."
- Gore Vidal
(Related: Corporate, Country, Dissent, First, Media, Opinion, states, United, Wonders, World)
"Throughout the lead-up to the war, CNN worked hard to air all sides of the story. We had a regular segment called Voices of Dissent in which we spent time covering antiwar protests and interviewing those who were opposed to the war with Iraq."
- Jim Walton
(Related: Time, War, Dissent, Iraq)
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."
- Howard Zinn
(Related: Patriotism, Dissent)