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
I grew up with the understanding that the world I lived in was one where people enjoyed a sort of freedom to communicate with each other in privacy, without it being monitored, without it being measured or analyzed or sort of judged by these shadowy figures or systems, any time they mention anything that travels across public lines.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects a concern for privacy and freedom of communication in a monitored world.
Edward Snowden expresses the idea that he believed in a world where individuals can communicate freely and privately, without being subjected to surveillance or judgment from unknown entities. His perspective highlights the erosion of this freedom due to modern technological practices and systemic oversight, emphasizing the importance of maintaining privacy in discussions that occur in the public domain.
Themes
PrivacyCommunicationFreedomSurveillanceSociety
In practice
Example use cases
During a talk on digital rights, one might emphasize the importance of Snowden's insight into freedom of communication.
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
Similar quotes
The philosopher is not a citizen of any community of ideas, that is what makes him a philosopher.
Ludwig WittgensteinRead
In anything that does cover the whole of your life - in your philosophy and your religion - you must have mirth. If you do not have mirth you will certainly have madness.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
We dedicated ourselves to a powerful idea - organic law rather than naked power. There seems to be universal acceptance of that idea in the nation.
Potter StewartRead
Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people's pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else's responsibility and not our own.
Pope FrancisRead
Were I asked to focus the New Testament message in three words, my proposal would be ADOPTION THROUGH PROPITIATION, and I do not expect ever to meet a richer or more pregnant summary of the gospel than that.
J. I. PackerRead
The complete irresponsibility of man for his actions and his nature is the bitterest drop which he who understands must swallow.
Friedrich NietzscheRead