#dissent

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

#begin #coercive #compulsory #dissent #dissenters

No man owns me. All man can do is practice the timeless, criminal art of threatening to separate my soul from her physical host. ↗

— Tiffany Madison

#criminal #eternal-life #freedom #freedom-of-speech-dissent #freedom-of-thought

Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. ↗

— Frederick Douglass

#agitation #dissent #liberties #power #radicalism

What do you mean by sound government?' Good public order, no corruption in high places, freedom from fear and war and crime, a reasonably equitable distribution of wealth and resources, concern for the individual life.' Then we haven't got sound government. ↗

— P.D. James

#politics #freedom

Today everybody is talking about the fact that we live in one world; because of globalization, we are all part of the same planet. They talk that way, but do they mean it? We should remind them that the words of the Declaration [of Independence] apply not only to people in this country, but also to people all over the world. People everywhere have the same right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. When the government becomes destructive of that, then it is patriotic to dissent and to criticize - to do what we always praise and call heroic when we look upon the dissenters and critics in totalitarian countries who dare to speak out. ↗

— Howard Zinn

#patriotism #politics #life

If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law ↗

— Henry David Thoreau

#dissent #nature

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. ↗

— Ismail Haniyeh

#am #among #claiming #compelled #definitively

Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters. ↗

— Rosa Luxemburg

#dissenters #freedom

But let it not be said that we did nothing. Let not those who love the power of the welfare/warfare state label the dissenters of authoritarianism as unpatriotic or uncaring. Patriotism is more closely linked to dissent than it is to conformity and a blind desire for safety and security. Understanding the magnificent rewards of a free society makes us unbashful in its promotion, fully realizing that maximum wealth is created and the greatest chance for peace comes from a society respectful of individual liberty. ↗

— Ron Paul

#dissent #freedom #liberty #nonconformity #patriotism

Nevertheless, what was made in the hope of transforming the world need not be rejected because it failed to do so – otherwise, one would also have to throw out a good deal of the greatest painting and poetry of the nineteenth century. An objective political failure can still work as a model of intellectual affirmation or dissent. ↗

— Robert Hughes

#artists #creativity #dissent #failure #revolution