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Dissent Quotes

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Dissent Quotes

“I find myself frequently placed where I dare give neither assent nor dissent to propositions that are submitted to me; for there is danger that any words I may speak shall be reported as something that the Lord has given me. It is not always safe for me to express my own judgment; for sometimes when someone wishes to carry out his own purpose, he will regard any favorable word I may speak as special light from the Lord”

GivingMaySometimesLightPurposeSpeakGivenWishMy OwnLordSpecialDangerSafeJudgmentRegardDarePropositionsDissent
Author:Ellen G. White
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“No government can be long secure without a formidable opposition. It reduces their supporters to that tractable number which can be managed by the joint influences of fruition and hope. It offers vengeance to the discontented, and distinction to the ambitious; and employs the energies of aspiring spirits, who otherwise may prove traitors in a division or assassins in a debate.”

MayLongGovernmentSpiritEnergyNumbersInfluenceOffersProveDebateSecureDistinctionOppositionDivisionAmbitiousSupporterVengeanceJointsDissentTraitorAssassinsFormidableFruition
Book:Collected Edition of the Novels and Tales
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“The opposition is indispensable. A good statesman, like any other sensible human being, always learns more from his opponents than from his fervent supporters. For his supporters will push him to disaster unless his opponents show him where the dangers are. So if he is wise he will often pray to be delivered from his friends, because they will ruin him. But though it hurts, he ought also to pray never to be left without opponents; for they keep him on the path of reason and good sense.”

IfsHumansReasonShowsLeftHurtHuman BeingsPathWiseDangerOughtPrayingDisasterRuinsOpponentsOppositionSensibleIt HurtsSupporterIndispensableDissentStatesmenGood SenseFervent
Author:Walter Lippmann
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“Disagreement produces debate but dissent produces dissension. Dissent (which come from the Latin, dis and sentire) means originally to feel apart from others. People who disagree have an argument, but people who dissent have a quarrel. People may disagree and both may count themselves in the majority. But a person who dissents is by definition in a minority. A liberal society thrives on disagreement but is killed by dissension. Disagreement is the life blood of democracy, dissension is its cancer.”

PeopleFeelsMayMeanPersonsDemocracyBloodProduceArgumentMajorityCancerDefinitionsDebateThriveMinoritiesLatinDisagreeQuarrelsDissentDisagreementDissension
Author:Daniel J. Boorstin
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“Man is about to be an automaton; he is identifiable only in the computer. As a person of worth and creativity, as a being with an infinite potential, he retreats and battles the forces that make him inhuman. The dissent we witness is a reaffirmation of faith in man; it is protest against living under rules and prejudices and attitudes that produce the extremes of wealth and poverty and that make us dedicated to the destruction of people through arms, bombs, and gases, and that prepare us to think alike and be submissive objects for the regime of the computer.”

PeopleThinkingMenPersonsForceWealthAttitudePovertyCreativityObjectsProduceArmsBattleComputerDestructionPrejudiceInfiniteExtremesWitnessBombsProtestDedicatedRegimesRetreatDissentInhumanSubmissiveWealth And PovertyInfinite Potential
Author:William O. Douglas
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“I would like you to understand completely, also emotionally, that I'm a political detainee and will be a political prisoner, that I have nothing now or in the future to be ashamed of in this situation. That, at bottom, I myself have in a certain sense asked for this detention and this sentence, because I've always refused to change my opinion, for which I would be willing to give my life and not just remain in prison. That therefore I can only be tranquil and content with myself.”

GivingI CanWould BePoliticalCertainSituationOpinionWillingLike YouPrisonBottomSentencesAshamedPrisonerDissentTranquilDetentionPolitical PrisonersDetainees
Author:Antonio Gramsci
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“Leading fosters a working atmosphere that stimulates an open exchange of ideas and fosters dissent. People should show a genuine concern for one another and treat one another with fairness, as peers and friends. With such an atmosphere it should be a pleasure to come to work.”

PeopleShouldIdeasShowsPleasureLibertyConcernTreatsGenuineAtmosphereFairnessPeersDissentGenuine Concern
Book:The Will to Lead: Running a Business with a Network of Leaders
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“Realization of this need means adults must awaken to the urgency of the young people's unrest-in other words there must be created an adult unrest against the inequities and injustices in the present system. If the government is in jeopardy, it is not because we are unable to cope with revolutionary situations. Jeopardy means that either the leaders or the people do not realize they have all the tools required to make the revolution come true. The tools and the opportunity exist. Only the moral imagination is missing.”

PeopleIfsNeedsMeanGovernmentYoungOpportunityRealizingImaginationSituationLibertyLeaderMoralMissingRevolutionAdultsToolsInjusticeRealizationRevolutionaryDissentUrgencyUnrestJeopardy
Book:POINTS OF REBELLION
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“Political dissension is doubtless a less evil than the lethargy of despotism: but still it is a great evil, and it would be as worthy the efforts of the patriot as of the philosopher, to exclude its influence if possible, from social life. The good are rare enough at best. There is no reason to subdivide them by artificial lines. But whether we shall ever be able so far to perfect the principles of society as that political opinions shall, in its intercourse, be as inoffensive as those of philosophy, mechanics, or any other, may well be doubted.”

IfsWellsMayStillsReasonEnoughPhilosophyWould BeAblePoliticalEvilSocialLinesPerfectEffortLibertyOpinionPrinciplesInfluencePhilosopherWorthyNo ReasonArtificialPatriotMechanicDissentIntercourseSocial LifeDespotismDoubtedLethargyDissensionPolitical Opinions
Book:Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution : Annotated Correspondence
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“We see political leaders replacing moral imperatives with a Southern strategy. We have seen all too clearly that there are men-now in power in this country-who do not respect dissent, who cannot cope with turmoil, and who believe that the people of America are ready to support repression as long as it is done with a quiet voice and a business suit. And it is up to us to prove that they are wrong.”

PeopleMenBelieveLongCountryDoneAmericaPoliticalVoiceLibertyLeaderMoralSupportReadyQuietProveStrategySuitsSouthernImperativesDissentRepressionTurmoilPolitical LeadersQuiet Voice
Author:John Lindsay
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“There is one tradition in America I am proud to inherit. It is our first freedom and the truest expression of our Americanism: the ability to dissent without fear. It is our right to utter the words, 'I disagree.' We must feel at liberty to speak those words to our neighbors, our clergy, our educators, our news media, our lawmakers and, above all, to the one among us we elect - President.”

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Author:Natalie Merchant
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“A simple way to determine whether the right to dissent in a particular society is being upheld is to apply the town square test: Can a person walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm? If he can, then that person is living in a free society. If not, it's a fear society.”

IfsWayPersonsSimpleWalksViewsLibertyMiddleParticularTestsTownsDetermineHarmSquaresDissentFree SocietyImprisonmentSimple Ways
Book:The Case For Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror
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“In this point of the case the question is distinctly presented whether the people of the United States are to govern through representatives chosen by their unbiased suffrages or whether the money and power of a great corporation are to be secretly exerted to influence their judgment and control their decisions.”

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Book:Annual Messages, Veto Messages, Proclamation, & C
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“I am more than ever convinced of the dangers to which the free and unbiased exercise of political opinion - the only sure foundation and safeguard of republican government - would be exposed by any further increase of the already overgrown influence of corporate authorities.”

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Book:Martin Van Buren, 1782-1862: chronology-documents-bibliographical aids
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“As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear or is trampled to death beneath an iron heel. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people's masters.”

PeopleShouldLawViewsExistenceLibertyStruggleMastersBecomingCitizensCreaturesAchievementCombinationCorporationsServantIronHeelsMonopolyDissent
Book:State of the Union Addresses
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“It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. ...And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man.”

MenHumansProblemGovernmentNaturalResultsLibertyEconomicMinutesAveragePrivilegedDissentSanctionsDespotismRobesAverage ManDynasty
Book:The Essential Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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“These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for.”

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Author:Franklin D. Roosevelt
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