Daniel Ellsberg Quotes

To rebel against a powerful political, economic, religious, or social establishment is very dangerous and very few people do it, except, perhaps, as part of a mob. To rebel against the “scientific” establishment, however, is the easiest thing in the world, and anyone can do it and feel enormously brave, without risking as much as a hangnail.

It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.

Democrats are so spineless, so afraid to go against the tide... but dissension is the greatest form of patriotism.

I like to be against the odds.

The ones I pity are the ones who never stick out their neck for something they believe, never know the taste of moral struggle, and never have the thrill of victory.

You pay a certain penalty for going your own way. A lot of people think you're nuts, and you're not as popular with girls as you should be.

I have worked hard and learnt that I have to make a decision - whether I am going to conform and protect myself or not. I chose not to.

Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of 'crackpot' than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost.

If you attack the establishment long enough and hard enough, they will make you a member of it.

The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.

When I was a kid, the avant-garde to me was boring because it was just the flip side of being really successful.

I think being a wealthy member of the establishment is the antithesis of cool. Being a countercultural revolutionary is cool. So to the extent that you've made a billion dollars, you've probably become uncool.

To operate based on conviction and belief requires an acceptance that your actions could get you fired. This is different from pig-headed bravado, and it is different from putting the company at risk.

I'm of the establishment but anti-establishment.

In the U.S., you have to be a deviant or die of boredom.

The amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time.

We need more people speaking out. This country is not overrun with rebels and free thinkers. It's overrun with sheep and conformists.

I'm a fan of polarization. If you make something that is palatable to everybody, it's like making vanilla ice cream, and I think we have enough of that.

It's never popular among young people to be part of the establishment.

When I was younger, I just thought that my plans were probably going to be more exciting than my parents' plans or the establishment. I sort of got by on being a little bit of a rebel.

It is safest to take the unpopular side in the first instance. Transit from the unpopular is easy... but from the popular to the unpopular is so steep and rugged that it is impossible to maintain it.

So I don't think I'm gonna pull my head into my shell just because a bunch of people start acting like idiots.

It is always easy to take a position when society agrees with you. It is hard to take a position that everyone else in society disagrees with.

Life is a difficult game. You can win it only by retaining your birthright to be a person. And to retain this right, you will have to be willing to take the social or external risks involved in ignoring pressures to do things the way others say they should be done

I am ... one of a different sort: one of those who risks his skin to prove his platitudes.