Barack Obama Quotes

Better let it all alone in the depths of her heart and the depths of the sea.

I sort of have to self-censor sometimes.

The power of lying is much less than the power of what is not to be discussed.

The public never ought to have become aware of this matter.

He learned too much and too early that victory goes to the discreet, that one does not speak one's opinion, that ideally one does not even develop one's opinion.

I know things, but I shut my mouth. They don't want me to speak, so I don't speak.

We can't talk about Jesus. We can't mention that anymore.

The idea that the more you hide something, the more it becomes something that's supposed to feel shameful is very true.

If you conceal things, they become more charged.

All those layers of silence upon silence.

For an entire populace, change, growth, and spontaneity were dangerous. Acting upon a personal desire, whispering a hidden longing, revealing your true feelings - all the human actions we think of as essential to a character - had be censored by the self lest they be punished by the state.

I don't like being forced to reduce my thoughts to sound bites.

For some reason, my whole life has been, 'You can't do this, you can't do that.'

Secrecy involves a tension which, at the moment of revelation, finds its release.

I lived a very don't-ask, don't-tell life.

There are thoughts we must not think.

The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion.

I do not favor the gag order.

The function of a briefing paper is to prevent the ambassador from saying something dreadfully indiscreet. I sometimes think its true object is to prevent the ambassador from saying anything at all.

A lot of times, we censor ourselves before the censor even gets there.

I was imprisoned for talking.

The Iranian government advocates free speech... but there's no freedom after you've spoken

There is no functional difference between censorship and the threat of censorship.

From politics, it was an easy step to silence.

One knows something is important when the powers that be choose not to acknowledge it in public.