Glenn Greenwald Quotes

Do not criticize your government when out of the country. Never cease to do so when at home.

...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

How does it become a man to behave towards the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.

A man who doesn't detest a bad government is a fool. And if there were such a thing as a good government on earth, it would be a great joy to serve it.

I think it's the height of patriotism to continue to exercise your right as a citizen and to hold your government to account. Isn't that what the very essence of democracy is about?

You have a voice, you have a vote. Use it.

I feel, if I criticize my country, it's not because I don't like my country. I love my country. That is my patriotism. I want to make it a better place for my children, for everyone. And if we don't look at what's in front of us, and we allow things to get out of hand because of other vested interests, then as citizens are not doing a good job.

As citizens, we have to co-create good governance, we cannot outsource it and hope to be passively happy consumers. Like everything worth its while, good governance must be earned.

It's one thing to have a president with whose politics you disagree; it's another to have a president who doesn't even seem to care about your welfare.

It's not like I have campaigns, I don't want to be an activist or anything.

My start in politics was watching my parents go to the polls on election day. It reminded me that being an active, engaged citizen and voter is critical to the success of our democracy.

Every American at some point has got to make the connection between their own hopes and dreams and who is elected to office. It's essential. It's very easy to pull the covers up over your head and say, "I can't handle it. Too much." But we just have to handle it and we have to accept that it's our job. Each of us. Nobody is going to take care of it.

We are making politics a spectator sport in which our only duty is to vote somebody into office and then retire to the grandstands.

I'm a citizen in a democracy. To call me an activist would be redundant. It's not a spectator sport. If we all become non-participants, it no longer works.

Opposition is different from terrorism. Opposition is a political movement.

Blasphemy and sedition (meaning the truth about Church and State).

I am getting much more political as I get older. It's the duty of any writer, in particular, not to stand back from the world.

Pledge allegiance to the flag that neglects us.

It's important that people press from the outside. It's important that people are able to make change from the inside. Both of those things are important. Protest is fundamentally a political act.

In a democratic society, the only treason is silence.

It may not be what you would've chosen, but we all have a responsibility to be active citizens and shape our system and our future.

Surely, if it is the right of the people to "alter or abolish," it is their right to criticize, even severely, policies they believe destructive of the ends for which government has been established. This principle, in the Declaration of Independence, suggests that true patriotism lies in supporting the values the country is supposed to cherish: equality, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. When our government compromises, undermines, or attacks those values, it is being unpatriotic.

If what your country is doing seems to you practically and morally wrong, is dissent the highest form of patriotism?

Channel your outrage ... Do that which you are able to do.

Our inspired Constitution is wisely designed to protect from excesses of political power, but it can do little to protect us from the excesses of appetite or from individual indifference to great principles or institutions. Any significant unraveling of the moral fiber of the American people, therefore, finally imperils the Constitution.