Edward Snowden famous quotes

It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised - and it should be.
-- Edward Snowden

#Government #Should #Angry

There have been times throughout American history where what is right is not the same as what is legal. Sometimes to do the right thing you have to break the law.
-- Edward Snowden

#Law #Sometimes #American History

Your rights matter, because you never know when you're going to need them.
-- Edward Snowden

#Rights #Needs #Matter

The US government still has no idea what documents I have because encryption works
-- Edward Snowden

#Government #Ideas #Encryption

It's really hard to take that step-not only do I believe in something, I believe in it enough that I'm willing to set my own life on fire and burn it to the ground.
-- Edward Snowden

#Believe #Fire #Steps

We don't have to ask for our privacy, we can take it back
-- Edward Snowden

#Privacy

Because, remember, I didn’t want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself.
-- Edward Snowden

#Giving #Want #Chance

I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building.
-- Edward Snowden

#Government #Nsa #People

Any analyst at any time can target anyone. Any selector, anywhere I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the President
-- Edward Snowden

#Judging #President #Target

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

#Country #America #People

Privacy matters; privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be,
-- Edward Snowden

#Want #Who We Are #Matter

My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.
-- Edward Snowden

#Nsa #Names #Done

I acted on my belief that the NSA's mass surveillance programs would not withstand a constitutional challenge, and that the American public deserved a chance to see these issues determined by open courts. Today, a secret program authorized by a secret court was, when exposed to the light of day, found to violate Americans' rights. It is the first of many.
-- Edward Snowden

#Rights #Light #Nsa

In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised - and it should be.
-- Edward Snowden

#Government #Whistleblowers #Administration

I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy, and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity.
-- Edward Snowden

#Creativity #Intellectual #World

Bathtub falls and police officers kill more Americans than terrorism, yet we've been asked to sacrifice our most sacred rights for fear of falling victim to it.
-- Edward Snowden

#Fall #Sacrifice #Rights

My perspective is if you're not willing to be called a few names to help out your country, you don't care enough.
-- Edward Snowden

#Country #Names #Perspective

I had been looking for leaders, but I realized that leadership is about being the first to act.
-- Edward Snowden

#Leader #Firsts #I Realized

A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all.
-- Edward Snowden

#Growing Up #Children #Today

Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore individual citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring.
-- Edward Snowden

#Law #Humanity #Citizens

What is right is not always the same as what is legal
-- Edward Snowden

#Memorable

The government has granted itself power it is not entitled to. There is no public oversight. The result is people like myself have the latitude to go further than they are allowed to.
-- Edward Snowden

#Government #People #Granted

We watch our own people more closely than anyone else in the world.
-- Edward Snowden

#Nsa #People #Watches

When Clapper raised his hand and lied to the American public, was anyone tried? Were any charges brought? Within 24 hours of going public, I had three charges against me.
-- Edward Snowden

#Hands #Nsa #Three

The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything.
-- Edward Snowden

#Nsa #Infrastructure

And that's not something I'm willing to support, it's not something I'm willing to build and it's not something I'm willing to live under.
-- Edward Snowden

#Support #Willing

I don't want to live in a world where everything that I say, everything I do, everyone I talk to, every expression of creativity or love or friendship is recorded,
-- Edward Snowden

#Creativity #Expression #World

Allowing the U.S. government to intimidate its people with threats of retaliation for revealing wrongdoing is contrary to the public interest.
-- Edward Snowden

#Government #People #Intimidating

I believe that at this point in history, the greatest danger to our freedom and way of life comes from the reasonable fear of omniscient State powers kept in check by nothing more than policy documents.
-- Edward Snowden

#Believe #Way #Danger

I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong.
-- Edward Snowden

#Who I Am #Done #Hiding

There can be no faith in government if our highest offices are excused from scrutiny - they should be setting the example of transparency.
-- Edward Snowden

#Government #Nsa #Office

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.
-- Edward Snowden

#Country #Mean #Government

I don't want the stage. I'm terrified of giving these talking heads some distraction, some excuse to jeopardize, smear, and delegitimize a very important movement.
-- Edward Snowden

#Talking #Giving #Important

I don't want to hide. If I get arrested, I get arrested.
-- Edward Snowden

#Want

When you say, ‘I have nothing to hide,’ you’re saying, ‘I don’t care about this right.’ You’re saying, ‘I don’t have this right, because I’ve got to the point where I have to justify it.’ The way rights work is, the government has to justify its intrusion into your rights.
-- Edward Snowden

#Rights #Government #Care

Truth is coming and it cannot be stopped.
-- Edward Snowden

#Truth Is

You can't come up against the world's most powerful intelligence agencies and not accept the risk.
-- Edward Snowden

#Powerful #Agency #Risk

If I target for example an email address, for example under FAA 702, and that email address sent something to you, Joe America, the analyst gets it. All of it. IPs, raw data, content, headers, attachments, everything. And it gets saved for a very long time - and can be extended further with waivers rather than warrants.
-- Edward Snowden

#Attachment #Data #America

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.
-- Edward Snowden

#Communication #Phones #Nsa

Properly implemented strong crypto systems are one of the few things that you can rely on,
-- Edward Snowden

#Strong #Rely

The Iraq war that I signed up for was launched on false premises. The American people were misled. Now, whether that was due to bad faith or simply mistakes in intelligence, I can't say for sure. But I can say it shows the problem of putting too much faith in intelligence systems without debating them in public.
-- Edward Snowden

#Mistake #War #Memorable

I have been to the darkest corners of government, and what they fear is light.
-- Edward Snowden

#Light #Government #Evil

I would rather be without a state than without a voice.
-- Edward Snowden

#Voice #States

I care more about the country than what happens to me. But we can't allow the law to become a political weapon or agree to scare people away from standing up for their rights, no matter how good the deal. I'm not going to be part of that.
-- Edward Snowden

#Country #Rights #Law

There are more important things than money. If I were motivated by money, I could have sold these documents to any number of countries and gotten very rich.
-- Edward Snowden

#Country #Numbers #Important

I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant.
-- Edward Snowden

#Law #Secret #Executive Power

You simply have to eventually fall under suspicion from somebody even by a wrong call. And then they can use this system to go back in time and scrutinize every decision you've ever made, every friend you've ever discussed something with. And attack you on that basis to sort to derive suspicion from an innocent life and paint anyone in the context of a wrongdoer.
-- Edward Snowden

#Fall #Decision #Use

Initially I was very encouraged. Unfortunately, the mainstream media now seems far more interested in what I said when I was 17 or what my girlfriend looks like rather than, say, the largest program of suspicionless surveillance in human history.
-- Edward Snowden

#Girlfriend #Media #Looks

If I defected at all, I defected from the government to the public
-- Edward Snowden

#Government

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.
-- Edward Snowden

#Government #Able #Truth Is

I do not expect to see home again.
-- Edward Snowden

#Home

The great fear that I have regarding the outcome for America of these disclosures is that nothing will change. [People] won't be willing to take the risks necessary to stand up and fight to change things And in the months ahead, the years ahead, it's only going to get worse. [The NSA will] say that because of the crisis, the dangers that we face in the world, some new and unpredicted threat, we need more authority, we need more power, and there will be nothing the people can do at that point to oppose it. And it will be turnkey tyranny.
-- Edward Snowden

#Fighting #Years #Nsa

A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all. They'll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves an unrecorded, unanalysed thought. And that's a problem because privacy matters, privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be.
-- Edward Snowden

#Children #Growing Up #Mean

I told the government I'd volunteer for prison, as long as it served the right purpose,
-- Edward Snowden

#Government #Long #Volunteer

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.
-- Edward Snowden

#Giving #Trying #Want

Before 2013, if you said the NSA was making records of everybody's phone calls and the [Government Communications Headquarters] was monitoring lawyers and journalists, people raised eyebrows and called you a conspiracy theorist. Those days are over.
-- Edward Snowden

#Communication #Phones #Government

When Laura Poitras asked me if she could film our encounters, I was extremely reluctant. I'm grateful that I allowed her to persuade me. The result is a brave and brilliant film that deserves the honor and recognition it has received. My hope is that this award will encourage more people to see the film and be inspired by its message that ordinary citizens, working together, can change the world.
-- Edward Snowden

#Grateful #Awards #People

Encryption works. Properly implemented strong crypto systems are one of the few things that you can rely on. Unfortunately, endpoint security is so terrifically weak that NSA can frequently find ways around it.
-- Edward Snowden

#Strong #Nsa #Encryption