Quotes from Glenn Greenwald

But the true measure of a society's freedom is how it treats its dissidents and other marginalized groups, not how it treats good loyalists.

The true measurement of a person's worth isn't what they say they believe in, but what they do in defense of those beliefs," he said. "If you're not acting on your beliefs, then they probably aren't real.

The fact that war is the word we use for almost everything—on terrorism, drugs, even poverty—has certainly helped to desensitize us to its invocation; if we wage wars on everything, how bad can they be?

The many pro-surveillance advocates I have debated since Snowden blew the whistle have been quick to echo Eric Schmidt's view that privacy is for people who have something to hide. But none of them would willingly give me the passwords to their email accounts, or allow video cameras in their homes.

American political culture quickly and always outpaces any attempt to satirize it.

Democracy requires accountability and consent of the governed, which is only possible if citizens know what is being done in their name.

Incestuous, homogeneous fiefdoms of self-proclaimed expertise are always rank-closing and mutually self-defending, above all else.

The same president who has insisted that core moralism drives him has brought America to its lowest moral standing in history.

We all instinctively understand that the private realm is where we can act, think, speak, write, experiment, and choose how to be, away from the judgmental eyes of others. Privacy is a core condition of being a free person.

Beyond all the other reasons not to do it, free speech assaults always backfire: they transform bigots into martyrs.

They're called 'facts', and my role is to amplify those, not cheerlead. And I don't care at all what you think of my motives.

It's common to go from 'crashing the gate' to guarding it.

I know it's a really hard concept to process, but the fact that Govt accuses someone of being a Terrorist doesn't mean they are.

A president who is burdened with a failed and unpopular war, and who has lost the trust of the country, simply can no longer govern. He is destined to become as much a failure as his war.

The hallmark of an authoritarian idiot is yelling TERRORIST-LOVER! at anyone questioning the definition of Terrorist.

As always, imagine how great the press corps would be if it devoted 1/1000th the energy to dissecting non-sex political wrongdoing

For those suggesting criticisms of drone kills should wait until the election: that'd be reasonable if he stops killing until the election.

mass surveillance is a universal temptation for any unscrupulous power.

He's the President—it's the responsibility of every citizen to criticize aggressively when they think it's warranted.

When journalists are 'accused' of being 'advocates', that means: challenging and deviating from DC orthodoxies.

To permit surveillance to take root on the Internet would mean subjecting virtually all forms of human interaction, planning, and even thought itself to comprehensive state examination.

I'd like to vote for the candidate similar to the one the Right absurdly claims Obama is.

Through a carefully cultivated display of intimidation to anyone who contemplated a meaningful challenge, the government had striven to show people around the world that its power was constrained by neither law nor ethics, neither morality nor the Constitution: look what we can do and will do to those who impede our agenda.

Bush violated FISA [...] because he wanted to violate the law in order to establish the general 'principle' that he was not bound by the law, to show that he has the power to break the law, that he is more powerful than the law.