Top 36 quotes by Daniel Ellsberg

Advertisements

For an American to be patriotic is to be loyal to the principles of our Constitution, and the First Amendment. The truth is that the policies of the government is sometimes in conflict with that. In our country, patriotism should not be defined as obedience to an authority.
Daniel Ellsberg

"The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers". PBS Live Chat, www.pbs.org. October 5, 2010. Source

Country , Government , Patriotic

In my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden's release of NSA material – and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago.
Daniel Ellsberg

"Edward Snowden: saving us from the United Stasi of America" by Daniel Ellsberg, www.theguardian.com. June 10, 2013. Source

Years , Important , Nsa

It is time for the rest of the world to join ... in demanding that ALL the nuclear weapons states -including Israel, India and Pakistan, but above all the US and Russia - negotiate concrete steps on a definite time-table toward the global, inspected abolition of nuclear weapons.
Daniel Ellsberg

Israel , Russia , India And Pakistan

I felt that as an American citizen, as a responsible citizen, I could no longer cooperate in concealing this information from the American public. I did this clearly at my own jeopardy and I am prepared to answer to all the consequences of this decision.
Daniel Ellsberg

Answers , Decision , Citizens

The courage we need is not the fortitude to be obedient in the service of an unjust war, to help conceal lies, to do our job for a boss who has usurped power and is acting as an outlaw government. It is the courage at last to face honestly the truth and reality of what we are doing in the world and act responsibly to change it.
Daniel Ellsberg

Jobs , War , Lying

It's true that most people find it far more comfortable to trust an authority than to have their faith questioned.
Daniel Ellsberg

Live Chat with Ellsberg and Filmmakers, www.pbs.org. October 5, 2010. Source

People , Authority , Comfortable

Look, all administrations, all governments lie, all officials lie and nothing they say is to be believed. That's a pretty good rule.
Daniel Ellsberg

Hero , Lying , Government Lies

We need the courage to face the truth about what we are doing in the world and act responsibly to change it.
Daniel Ellsberg

World , Needs , Faces

If there's another 9/11 or a major war in the Middle-East involving a U.S. attack on Iran, I have no doubt that there will be, the day after or within days an equivalent of a Reichstag fire decree that will involve massive detentions in this country.
Daniel Ellsberg

Country , Hero , War

But it is important always to keep in mind that the danger of harming humans is not connected only or even mainly with telling secrets, there can be great danger in keeping secrets.
Daniel Ellsberg

Source: www.pbs.org

Mind , Important , Keeping Secrets

I see Edward Snowden as someone who has chosen, at best, exile from the country he loves-with a serious risk of his assassination by agents of his government or life in prison (in solitary confinement)-to awaken us to the danger of our loss of democracy to a total-surveilla nce state
Daniel Ellsberg

Country , Government , Loss

The effect of that is to poison the flow of information to the President himself and to create a situation where a President can be almost, to use a metaphor, psychotically divorced from the realities in which he is acting.
Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg (1972). “Papers on the war”, Pocket

Reality , Acting , President

You needn't think there is nothing you can do-you can tell the truth.
Daniel Ellsberg

Thinking , Truth , Telling The Truth

My feelings of revulsion and foreboding about nuclear weapons had not changed an iota since 1945, and they have never left me. Since I was 14, the overriding objective of my life has been to prevent the occurrence of nuclear war.
Daniel Ellsberg

War , Feelings , Nuclear

There should be at least one leak like the Pentagon Papers every year.
Daniel Ellsberg

Years , Hero , Paper

It's naive and even irresponsible for a grownup today to get her or his information about foreign policy and war and peace exclusively from the administration in power. It's essential to have other sources of information, to check those against one's own common sense, and to form your own judgment as to whether we ought to go to or persist in war.
Daniel Ellsberg

War , Essentials , Common Sense