Glenn Greenwald quotes

Glenn Greenwald is an American journalist, author, and lawyer known for his work on civil liberties and political affairs. His reporting on the Edward Snowden leaks regarding NSA surveillance brought him international prominence. He continues to be an outspoken advocate for press freedom and transparency. Here are 96 of his quotes:

To permit surveillance to take root on the Internet would mean subjecting virtually all forms of human interaction, planning, and even thought itself to comprehensive state examination. (Glenn Greenwald)
Secrecy is the linchpin of abuse of power, we discovered, its enabling force. Transparency is the only antidote. View quote
Glenn Greenwald
The history of human knowledge is nothing more than the realization that yesterday's pieties are actually shameful errors. View quote
Glenn Greenwald
The national religion in the United States is worship of all things military. And journalists are its high priests. View quote
Glenn Greenwald
I don't have a 'side'-I'm responsible for what I say and nothing else. View quote
Glenn Greenwald
Terrorism': the word that means nothing, yet justifies everything. View quote
Glenn Greenwald
Terrorist', noun: 1. Someone my government tells me is a terrorist; 2. Someone my President decides to kill. View quote
Glenn Greenwald
Transparency is for those who carry out public duties and exercise public power. Privacy is for everyone else. View quote
Glenn Greenwald
The fact that war is the word we use for almost everything-on terrorism, drugs, even poverty-has certainly helped to desensitize us to its invocation; if we wage wars on everything, how bad can they be? View quote
Glenn Greenwald
Nobody needed the US Constitution to guarantee press freedom so that journalists could befriend, amplify and glorify political leaders; the guarantee was necessary so that journalists could do the opposite. View quote
Glenn Greenwald
History leaved no doubt that collective coercion and control is both the intent and effect of state surveillance. (Glenn Greenwald)
Those who reveal information the law makes it a crime to reveal, when doing so is the only way to demonstrate to the public that powerful officials are acting wrongfully or deceitfully. View quote
Glenn Greenwald
Through a carefully cultivated display of intimidation to anyone who contemplated a meaningful challenge, the [United States] government had striven to show people around the world that its power was constrained by neither law nor ethics, neither morality nor the Constitution: look what we can do and will do to those who impede our agenda. View quote
Glenn Greenwald
An elite class that is free to operate without limits - whether limits imposed by the rule of law or fear of the responses from those harmed by their behavior - is an elite class that will plunder, degrade, and cheat at will, and act endlessly to fortify its own power. View quote
Glenn Greenwald
The definition of an extreme authoritarian is one who is willing blindly to assume that government accusations are true without any evidence presented or opportunity to contest those accusations. View quote
Glenn Greenwald
We should not be comfortable or content in a society where the only way to remain free of surveillance and repression is if we make ourselves as unthreatning, passive, and compliant as possible. View quote
Glenn Greenwald
Many of the benefits from keeping terrorism fear levels high are obvious. Private corporations suck up massive amounts of Homeland Security cash as long as that fear persists, while government officials in the National Security and Surveillance State can claim unlimited powers and operate with unlimited secrecy and no accountability. View quote
Glenn Greenwald
But while American companies were being warned away from supposedly untrustworthy Chinese routers [by Huawei], foreign organizations would have been well advised to beware of American-made ones. View quote
Glenn Greenwald
No matter the specific techniques involved, historically mass surveillance has had several constant attributes. [...] A citizenry that is aware of always being watched quickly becomes a compliant and fearful one. View quote
Glenn Greenwald
Nothing is more vital than enabling true transparency and adversarial journalism, and preventing further assaults on them. View quote
Glenn Greenwald
The true measurement of a person's worth isn't what they say they believe in, but what they do in defense of those beliefs,” he said. "If you're not acting on your beliefs, then they probably aren't real. (Glenn Greenwald)
Courage is contagious. View quote
Glenn Greenwald
The NSA and GCHQ ... are obsessed with searching out any small little crevice on the planet where some forms of communication may be taking place without them being able to invade it. ... They are obsessed with finding ways to invade the systems of online, onboard internet services and mobile phone services, because the very idea that human beings can communicate even for a few moments without them being able to collect and store and analyze and monitor what it is that we're saying is simply intolerable. View quote
Glenn Greenwald
What is lost when the private realm is abolished are many of the attributes typically associated with quality of life. Most people have experienced how privacy enables liberation from constraint. And we've all, conversely, had the experience of engaging in private behavior when we thought we were alone – dancing, confessing, exploring sexual expression, sharing untested ideas – only to feel shame at having been seen by others. View quote
Glenn Greenwald
News outlets correct lies. Slimy political operations deliberately use lies to advance their agenda and smear their adversaries. MSNBC has proven over and over again that they are decisively in the latter category. This is just the latest but by no means the only or even worst example. View quote
Glenn Greenwald