Sarah Cleghorn Quotes

Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.

I am Mother Jones. The Government can't take my life and you can't take my arm, but you can take my suitcase.

Who would be cleared by their committees? Not Washington, who was a rebel. Not Jefferson. who wrote that ... "rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." Not Garrison, who publicly burned the Constitution; or Wendell Phillips ... a philosophical anarchist; nor [William] Seward of the Higher Law.... Not Lincoln ... or Wilson ... or Justice Holmes.

Before every free conscience in America is subpoenaed, please speak up!

...the citizen who thinks he sees that the commonwealth's political clothes are worn out, and yet holds his peace and does not agitate for a new suit, is disloyal; he is a traitor

Did Lincoln hate America when he voted against the Mexican War? Did Mark Twain hate America when he made speeches against the Spanish American War? If you love your country you will find ways to speak out …

I am not a politician in prison, I am a political prisoner who uses jail to denounce Spain's human rights violations.

We went to America a few times and [Brian] Epstein always tried to waffle on at us about saying nothing about Vietnam. So there came a time when George [Harrison] and I said 'Listen, when they ask next time, we're going to say we don't like that war and we think they should get right out.' That's what we did.

I am a revolutionary; my life is dedicated to freeing the people.

The civil rights and antiwar movements taught Americans to question authority.

I applaud Chomsky's willingness to take a stand.

The Occupy Wall Street movement, in general, by putting this idea out there that the one percent is leeching off the 99 percent, is making a new discussion, making people figure out how to withhold their labor and come and put their issues on the table with the ruling class all over the country and all over the world.

We will protect our constitutional right to boycott, divest, and sanctions in this country.

You know, I had grown up standing on public sidewalks, saying things that people, you know, were very provoked by and were upset by. And - but standing outside that first soldier's funeral, it was eerily quiet.

You have a lot of people asking for town halls with the purpose of disrupting a town hall.

I was jailed for using words that I still dispute. Anyone who's ever met me will tell you that I'm not a violent person.

For years, decades, the system has taught us to stay quiet. They've made us believe that those who take to the streets to speak up are crazy, criminals, troublemakers.

I can't just sit back and write about the club when our democracy is under attack. I have to be a more positive force.

I resolved that no revolutionary movement was going to be brought into being in the USA unless I brought it into being.

Akbar Ganji was in prison for six years, and that was it...for six years, and it was finished. Of course the Iranian government could make up some stories and accuse him of some other things, but the international support didn't let the government do that.

If Mumia Abu-Jamal has nothing important to say, why are so many powerful people trying to shut him up?

As you look at me and listen to me, please remember the often repeated truth that one prisoner of conscience is one too many.

In a world built on violence, one must be a revolutionary before one can be a pacifist.

The highest form of patriotism is dissent.