It's important that we elevate and primarily focus on the rights of American citizens, but it's also important that we don't forget, 95 percent of the world's population lives beyond our own borders.
Edward SnowdenRead
Perhaps I am naive, but I believe that at this point in history, the greatest danger to our freedom and way of life comes from the reasonable fear of omniscient State powers kept in check by nothing more than policy documents.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects a concern about government overreach and the potential loss of freedom due to unchecked state power.
Edward Snowden emphasizes the danger posed by an all-knowing government that operates based on policies rather than accountability or oversight. He draws attention to the fragility of freedom in the face of surveillance and state authority, suggesting that mere policy documents are inadequate to protect individual liberties.
Themes
FreedomSurveillanceGovernmentAuthorityPrivacy
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about privacy rights, one might quote Snowden to illustrate the risks of unchecked state power.
More from Edward Snowden
All quotes →I think the most important idea is to remember that there have been times throughout American history where what is right is not the same as what is legal.
Edward SnowdenRead
Congress hasn't declared war on the countries - the majority of them are our allies - but without asking for public permission, NSA is running network operations against them that affect millions of innocent people. And for what? So we can have secret access to a computer in a country we're not even fighting?
Edward SnowdenRead
A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all.
Edward SnowdenRead
Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American, and the more panicked talk we hear from people like him... the better off we all are.
Edward SnowdenRead
I don't see myself as a hero because what I'm doing is self-interested: I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity.
Edward SnowdenRead
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I used to believe in God. The Christian one, that is (There are a few thousand to choose from. But I was born in a country where the dominant religion was Christianity so I believed in that one. Isn't it weird how that always happens?). Luckily I was also interested in science and nature. And reason and logic. And honesty and truth. And equality and fairness. By the age of eight I was an atheist.
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I feel like someone after a deluge being asked to describe the way it was before the flood while I'm still plucking seaweed out of my hair.
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