Quotes About Dissent

No-one is more hated, than he who speaks the truth. - (Plato)

A passion to rule, to tear down society and remake it more to their liking, a passion to silence all dissent and to make a world in which they wouldn't have to hear an opinion at variance with their own. The passion for destruction always has more appeal to more people than does the passion to preserve and build. It's an ugly truth of human nature. Passion, sir. The kind of raw passion that breeds ruthlessness

I always grew up with, 'Question authority.'

The moment you start asking questions, you become public enemy number one.

I'm of the establishment but anti-establishment.

Sometimes people don't want to laugh because it's wrong to laugh at their own establishment.

In addition to removing our democratically elected government, Israel wants to sow dissent among Palestinians by claiming that there is a serious leadership rivalry among us. I am compelled to dispel this notion definitively.

In our existing political conditions, when everybody agrees about something, it is generally untrue.

Organizations and nations are historically much more likely to prosper if they welcome dissent and promote openness.

the presence of that lone dissenter reduced the error rates of subjects by 75 percent. This is a crucial realization: If a group is embarking on an unfortunate course of action, a lone dissenter may turn it around by energizing ambivalent group members to join the dissent instead of following the crowd into error.

Recently we have seen a level of public protest unlike anything we have witnessed in decades. Dissent is about marching, and making one's voice heard in the streets and at the ballot box. But at the same time, there are strong voices calling this dissent unpatriotic and dangerous. We cannot let the forces of suppression win. America works best when new thoughts can emerge to compete, and thrive, in a marketplace of ideas.

Dissent is most controversial during wartime because it is cast as unpatriotic and dangerous to the national cause. But that is precisely the time when a democracy should be asking itself difficult and uncomfortable questions.

The role of dissent is to force all of us to question our dogmas and biases. It is to stretch the spectrum of discourse.

Most organizations prefer consensus and harmony over dissent and conflict. The procedures in place often seem expressly designed to minimize the frequency of exposure to actual disagreements and, when such disagreements happen, to explain them away.

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.

Handwritten political posters - often composed in an artless and unadorned style, usually just words on plain white paper - were ubiquitous in South Korea in the 1970s and 1980s and were one of the few outlets available for expressing political views. Most posters were anonymous and put up under the cover of night.

Dissent in art is a fundamental right. But if it is dissent about a book, a piece of art, and if you don't like it, you have the right to express your views outside the theatre, but you cannot create a law and order situation. Then the state has to step in.

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

Being deeply knowledgeable on one subject narrows one's focus and increases confidence, but it also blurs dissenting views until they are no longer visible, thereby transforming data collection into bias confirmation and morphing self-deception into self-assurance.

Unfortunately, purges are not something which happen just because men are imperfect. Purges are the necessary consequences of the philosophical foundation of Marxian socialism. If you cannot discuss philosophical differences of opinion in the same way you discuss other problems, you must find another solution—through violence and power. This refers not only to dissent concerning policies, economic problems, sociology, law, and so on. It refers also to problems of the natural sciences.

For instance, if there is a difference of opinion with regard to science or genetics, it must be decided by the "leader." This is the necessary unavoidable consequence of the fact that, according to Marxist doctrine, you do not consider the possibility of dissent among honest people; either you think as I do, or you are a traitor and must be liquidated.

This is the necessary unavoidable consequence of the fact that, according to Marxist doctrine, you do not consider the possibility of dissent among honest people; either you think as I do, or you are a traitor and must be liquidated.

Some said, John, print it, others said, Not so. Some said, It might do good, others said, No.

Most recently, in order to quell dissent, the progressives are implementing a chilling policy of national surveillance and selective prosecution—using the power of the police to harass and subdue their opposition.