Quotes About Dissent

Soixante-huitards, for sure, Frédéric says afterward, meaning they probably threw a few cobblestones in 1968.

Tolerance of dissent is the hallmark of a mature party, and it is well past time for the Republican Party to grow up.

There was a time when a willingness to criticize one's own government when it was wrong was the very definition of patriotism.

The argument of those who are being criticized at any time, the civil rights movement forward, the anti-war movement forward, is, it's always outside agitators doing it.

their form of government in such a manner as they may think expedient." Under that gospel, the citizen who thinks he sees that the commonwealth's political clothes are worn out, and yet holds his peace and does not agitate for a new suit, is disloyal; he is a traitor.

From the Introduction by Cornell West) For King, dissent did not mean disloyalty—in fact, dissent was a high form of patriotism. When he said that the US government was "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today," he was not trashing America. He was telling the painful truth about a country he loved. King was never anti-American; he was always anti-injustice in America and anywhere else.

Conscience renders one as unfit for the revolution as a double chin. Conscience eats through the brain like a cancer, until the whole of the grey matter is devoured.

Was die Herde am meisten hasst, ist derjenige, der anders denkt; es ist nicht so sehr die Meinung selbst, sondern die Kühnheit, selbst denken zu wollen.

Any government's condemnation of terrorism is only credible if it shows itself to be responsive to persistent, reasonable, closely argued, non-violent dissent. And yet, what's happening is just the opposite. The world over, non-violent resistance movements are being crushed and broken. If we do not respect and honour them, by default we privilege those who turn to violent means.

I'd say that the only thing worth globalizing is dissent. It's India's best export.

The only thing worth globalizing is dissent.

Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone.

The political function of 'the right of free speech' is to protect dissenters and unpopular minorities from forcible suppression - not to guarantee them the support, advantages, and rewards of a popularity they have not gained.

Your mind is your only judge of truth--and if others dissent your verdict, reality is the final court of appeal. John Galt

All too often dissenters wound up named or fined. Fifty-two-year-old Samuel Willard, Increase Mather's only equal among ministers, had sounded notes of caution all along. He assisted the Englishes in their escape; he participated in the private fast for John Alden. In exchange, he met with "unkindness, abuse, and reproach"—and with a witchcraft accusation.

countercantabrigianism.

Kima Greggs: I've always been a bit of the antiestablishment side of things. I had very radical opinions about capitalism and the corporate structure.

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong. —Voltaire, The Age of Louis XIV

Minorities are always better off in a culture which protects dissent than in a culture which protects us from dissent.

Whether one agrees or disagrees with the tactics of the Occupy Wall Street movement, it's easy to understand the inspiration for its anger as well as its impatience.

A heresy can spring only from a system that is in full vigor.

Christianity contains within itself a germ hostile to the Church (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Unanimity makes me itchy. It almost always hides a grave. I started digging.

A few economists weighed in against our decision as well.