Stephen Kinzer Quotes

Some in the West have long argued that because of the lack of a viable liberal alternative, supporting authoritarian regimes in Arab countries is the only political choice against the Islamists. Now, in Tunisia, as people flood into the streets demanding democracy, we see that this is not the case. It was not the case in Iran in 1979 either, but the West was so invested in the Shah that it failed to strongly back the liberal opposition. We don't have to repeat that error today.

It's a blessing that South Africa has a man like Nelson Mandela.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.

We did not have a revolution in order to have a democracy.

Now, when our nation to ruin's brink is verging, let us speak while there is time! Now, when the padlocks for our lips are forging. Silence is crime!

Democratic rights develop when the ruled demand them and have the means to prevail.

The Ballot or the Bullet

I admit that there was a mistake. But I had my ideology. I wanted to free my country.

Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is the history of resistance.

San Suu's story will always involve politics, but the essence is the love story.

Getting out to protest, this is something real and, I would say, something patriotic. Part of the new authoritarianism is to get people to prefer fiction and inaction to reality and action.

I have been fighting for democracy since I was 15 when I organised a strike to oppose the Hong Kong government's plan to introduce the Chinese patriotic school education; 100,000 people surrounded a government building with students asking for democracy for every citizen.

I call on the Iranian people: it is not too late to replace the corrupt regime and return to your glorious Persian heritage, a heritage of culture and values and not of bombs and missiles... How can a nation allow a regime to instill fear, take away the people's freedom and shock the young generation that seeks its way out of the dictatorial Iran.

A lot of people died fighting tyranny. The least I can do is vote against it.

Citizenship has been out of fashion for some decades in our country, but now it is back in fashion. Weekends are for fighting tyranny. And that's why it's going to be really fun to see Democracy Now!

But in this country we have one great privilege which they don't have in other countries. When a thing gets to be absolutely unbearable the people can rise up and throw it off. That's the finest asset we've got - the ballot box.

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

Politics...You see, it depends on what kind of politics. What we did during my father's generation was a duty. And it was beautiful because its goal was the conquest of freedom.

I think the greatest legacy of the 1960s was the general feeling that not only can you fight the powers that be, but you can win.

From Gandhi to Mandela, from the American patriot to the Polish shipbuilders, the makers of revolutions have not come from the top.

Iran is an ancient land, home to a proud culture with a rich heritage of learning and progress. The future of Iran will be decided by the people of Iran. Right now, the Iranian people are struggling with difficult questions about how to build a modern 21st century society that is at once Muslim, prosperous, and free. There is a long history of friendship between the American people and the people of Iran. As Iran's people move towards a future defined by greater freedom, greater tolerance, they will have no better friend than the United States of America.

There are no outdoor sports as graceful as throwing stones at a dictatorship.

You can Jail a Revolutionary but you can't jail the Revolution. You can run a freedom fighter around the country, but you can't run freedom fighting around the country. You can murder a liberator, but you can't murder liberation.

Formerly, when a king died at Versailles the reign of his successor was immediately announced by the cry: "The king is dead, long live the king", in order to make it understood that despotism is immortal! Now an entire people, moved by a sublime instinct, cried: Long live the Republic! to teach the universe that tyranny died with the tyrant.