Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.

Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.

When people don't understand that the government doesn't have their interests in mind, they're more susceptible to go to war.

War itself is the enemy of the human race.

If the gods had intended for people to vote, they would have given us candidates.

Americans have been taught that their nation is civilized and humane. But, too often, U.S. actions have been uncivilized and inhumane.

We need to decide that we will not go to war, whatever reason is conjured up by the politicians or the media, because war in our time is always indiscriminate, a war against innocents, a war against children.

Most wars, after all, present themselves as humanitarian endeavors to help people.

One certain effect of war is to diminish freedom of expression.

In the United States today, the Declaration of Independence hangs on schoolroom walls, but foreign policy follows Machiavelli.

If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.

There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.

To ward off alienation and gloom, it is only necessary to remember the unremembered heroes of the past, and to look around us for the unnoticed heroes of the present.

Capitalism has always been a failure for the lower classes. It is now beginning to fail for the middle classes.

I am supposing or perhaps only hoping that our future may be found in the pasts fugitive moments of compassion rather than in its solid centuries of warfare.

The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people for a purpose which is unattainable.

Pessimism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; it reproduces itself by crippling our willingness to act.

Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it.

There is no act too small, no act too bold. The history of social change is the history of millions of actions, small and large, coming together at critical points to create a power that governments cannot suppress.

But I suppose the most revolutionary act one can engage in is to tell the truth.

If you want to end terrorism, you have to stop being terrorists

It must surely be a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit that even a small number of those men and women in the hell of the prison system survive it and hold on to their humanity.

When a nation issues ultimatums, it leaves no room for compromise and ensures that war will continue.

Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens.

Will dissent be permitted? The answer to that question will determine whether the society is a free society or a fear society.

Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.

May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.

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.

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.

In contrast, fear societies are societies in which dissent is banned.

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.

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.

Free societies are societies in which the right of dissent is protected.

It's so easy for propaganda to work, and dissent to be mocked.

Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate.

Science exists, moreover, only as a journey toward troth. Stifle dissent and you end that journey.

In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.

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

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.

It's much easier to make jokes about sensitive issues if there is some dissent, some conflict.

Discussion in America means dissent.

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.

The rightful claim to dissent is an existential right of the individual.