Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
We decentralise the ability to decide the level of publicity that's attached to any of our communications.
That's the beauty of the Internet is that we're no longer tied to our communities by physical connections.
What I wanted to do was give society the information it needed to decide if it wanted to change the system.
We can't simply scare people into giving up their rights, on the basis, oh, this protects us from terrorism.
If we don't do anything, if we go along with the status quo, we are going to have a mass surveillance world.
The question is: Particularly in the post-9/11 era, are societies becoming more liberal or more authoritarian?
As for my personal politics, some people seem to think I'm some kind of archlibertarian, a hyper-conservative.
Since the revelations, we have seen a massive sea change in the technological basis and makeup of the Internet.
You can't come forward against the world's most powerful intelligence agencies and be completely free from risk.
The question for us is not what new story will come out next. The question is, what are we going to do about it?
My perspective is if you're not willing to be called a few names to help out your country, you don't care enough.
No system of mass surveillance has existed in any society that we know of to this point that has not been abused.
We need to put the security back in the National Security Agency. We can't have the national surveillance agency.
The greatest fear that I have regarding the outcome for America of these disclosures is that nothing will change.
Our founders did not write that 'We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all US Persons are created equal.'
My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.
We have to confront the reality of our world, and make the hard decisions about which way we want to move forward.
I hope you have read the election programme of the Labour Party...this is not socialism. It is Bolshevism run mad.
The FBI was creating a world where citizens rely on Apple to defend their rights, rather than the other way around.
It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised - and it should be.
If the government or the parties won't address our needs, we will. It's about direct action, even civil disobedience.
Ever since I've been here [in Russia], my life has been consumed with work that's actually fulfilling and satisfying.
Suspicionless surveillance does not become okay simply because it's only victimizing 95% of the world instead of 100%.
You would be surprised how effective, at least for influencing low-information voters, negative propaganda about me is.
The charges [government] brought against me, for example, explicitly denied my ability to make a public-interest defense.
If they had taught a class on how to be the kind of citizen Dick Cheney worries about, I would have finished high school.
Citizens have to fight suppression of information on matters of vital public importance. To tell the truth is not a crime.
The work of a generation is beginning here, with your hearings, and you have the full measure of my gratitude and support.
People say that [i'm a celebrity], but I've only had to sign autographs for "civ-libs" types. And I autograph court orders.
I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy, and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity.
As for labeling someone a whistleblower, I think it does them - it does all of us - a disservice, because it "otherizes" us.
Hong Kong has a reputation for freedom in spite of the People's Republic of China. It has a strong tradition of free speech.
You will never be completely free from risk if you're free. The only time you can be free from risk is when you're in prison.
I hate these questions - I don't like talking about this stuff [popular culture], because it's so... to me, it's so ordinary.
The big tech companies understood that the government had not only damaged American principles, it had hurt their businesses.
Because, remember, I didn't want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself.
There are cyber threats out there, this is a dangerous world, and we have to be safe, we have to be secure no matter the cost.
I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions, and that the return of this information to the public marks my end.
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.
I don't go out and play football and stuff - that's not me. I want to think, I want to build, I want to talk, I want to create.
All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a say in how they are governed. That is a milestone we left a long time ago.
I wanted to fight in the Iraq war because I felt like I had an obligation as a human being to help free people from oppression.
We have the right of revolution. Revolution does not always have to be weapons and warfare; it's also about revolutionary ideas.
When people talk about Web 2.0, they mean that when the Internet, the World Wide Web, first became popular, it was one way only.
As I said before, [patriotism] is distinct from acting to benefit the government - a distinction that's increasingly lost today.
The US government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped.
We have to be able to reject disproportionate and unjustified responses in the cyber domain just as we do in the physical domain.
When people say, 'Why don't you face the music?' I say, 'You have to understand the music is not an open court and a fair trial.'
The only thing I fear is the harmful effects on my family, who I won't be able to help any more. That's what keeps me up at night.
In the United States, there hasn't been much legislative change on the surveillance issue, although there are some tepid proposals.