Edward Snowden quotes - page 2

The NSA routinely lies in response to congressional inquiries about the scope of surveillance in America. (Edward Snowden)
I grew up with the understanding that the world I lived in was one where people enjoyed a sort of freedom to communicate with each other in privacy, without it being monitored, without it being measured or analyzed or sort of judged by these shadowy figures or systems, any time they mention anything that travels across public lines. View quote
Edward Snowden
And history also shows that seemingly ordinary people who are sufficiently resolute about justice can triumph over the most formidable adversaries. View quote
Edward Snowden
This country is worth dying for. View quote
Edward Snowden
Saying that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about freedom of speech because you have nothing to say. It's a deeply anti social principle because rights are not just individual, they're collective, and what may not have value to you today may have value to an entire population, an entire people, an entire way of life tomorrow. And if you don't stand up for it, then who will? View quote
Edward Snowden
The government and intelligence services of the United States of America have attempted to make an example of me, a warning to all others who might speak out as I have. I have been made stateless and hounded for my act of political expression. View quote
Edward Snowden
Politics: the art of convincing decent people to forget the lesser of two evils is also evil. View quote
Edward Snowden
There are no heroes, just heroic decisions. View quote
Edward Snowden
Hi and Merry Christmas. I'm honored to have a chance to speak with you and your family this year. Recently we learned that our governments, working in concert, have created a system of worldwide system of mass surveillance watching everything we do. Great Britain's George Orwell warned us of the danger of this kind of information. View quote
Edward Snowden
I did not reveal any US operations against legitimate military targets. I pointed out where the NSA has hacked civilian infrastructure such as universities, hospitals, and private businesses because it is dangerous. View quote
Edward Snowden
The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your emails or your wife's phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards. I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things... I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under. (Edward Snowden)
Privacy is the right to a free mind. View quote
Edward Snowden
The conversation occurring today will determine the amount of trust we can place both in the technology that surrounds us and the government that regulates it. Together we can find a better balance, end mass surveillance, and remind the government that if it really wants to know how we feel, asking is always cheaper than spying. View quote
Edward Snowden
When you are in the position privileged access, like a system administrator, you are exposed to a lot more information on a broader scale then the average employee... View quote
Edward Snowden
It is we who infuse life with meaning through our actions and the stories we create with them. View quote
Edward Snowden
Seeing someone in the position of James Clapper - the Director of National Intelligence - baldly lying to the public without repercussion is the evidence of a subverted democracy. The consent of the governed is not consent if it is not informed. View quote
Edward Snowden
Abandoning open society for fear of terrorism is the only way to be defeated by it. View quote
Edward Snowden
The types of collection in the book -– microphones and video cameras, TVs that watch us –- are nothing compared to what we have available today. We have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go. Think about what this means for the privacy of the average person. View quote
Edward Snowden
Being a patriot doesn't mean prioritizing service to government above all else. Being a patriot means knowing when to protect your country, knowing when to protect your Constitution, knowing when to protect your countrymen, from the violations of and encroachments of adversaries. And those adversaries don't have to be foreign countries. View quote
Edward Snowden
There can be no faith in government if our highest offices are excused from scrutiny - they should be setting the example of transparency. View quote
Edward Snowden
America is a fundamentally good country. We have good people with good values who want to do the right thing. But the structures of power that exist are working to their own ends to extend their capability at the expense of the freedom of all publics. (Edward Snowden)
A lot of people in 2008 voted for Obama. I did not vote for him. I voted for a third party. But I believed in Obama's promises. View quote
Edward Snowden
I've been a spy for almost all of my adult life - I don't like being in the spotlight. View quote
Edward Snowden
For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission's already accomplished. I already won. As soon as the journalists were able to work, everything that I had been trying to do was validated. Because, remember, I didn't want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself. View quote
Edward Snowden
We have seen enough criminality on the part of government. It is hypocritical to make this allegation against me. They have narrowed the public sphere of influence. View quote
Edward Snowden