I considered bringing forward information about these surveillance programs prior to the election, but I held off because I believed that [Barack] Obama was genuine when he said he was going to change things. I wanted to give the democratic process time to work.

Edward Snowden

Categorized in : Giving Information Surveillance

There have been times throughout American history where what is right is not the same as what is legal. Sometimes to do the right thing you have to break the law.

Edward Snowden

american-history law sometimes

Arguing that you don't care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.

Edward Snowden

nsa care different

I don't want to live in a world where everything that I say, everything I do, everyone I talk to, every expression of creativity or love or friendship is recorded.

Edward Snowden

creativity expression world

Being confronted with the realization that work you intended to benefit people is being used against them has a radicalizing effect.

Edward Snowden

benefits realization people

Being a patriot doesn’t mean prioritizing service to government above all else. Being a patriot means knowing when to protect your country, knowing when to protect your Constitution, knowing when to protect your countrymen, from the violations of and encroachments of adversaries. And those adversaries don’t have to be foreign countries.

Edward Snowden

government mean country

Your rights matter, because you never know when you're going to need them.

Edward Snowden

rights matter needs

It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised - and it should be.

Edward Snowden

whistleblowers government should

The government would assert that individuals who are aware of serious wrongdoing in the intelligence community should bring their concerns to the people most responsible for that wrongdoing, and rely on those people to correct the problems that those people themselves authorized.

Edward Snowden

community government people

You have to remember the way the internet works, when you communicate with the server, it's very likely not in your country. It's somewhere else in the world.

Edward Snowden

somewhere-else country world

Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped.

Edward Snowden

truth-is

I would rather be without a state than without a voice.

Edward Snowden

voice states

People in both parties from the congressional intelligence committees - all these co-opted officials who play cheerleader for spy agencies - go on these Sunday shows and they say: "Snowden was a traitor. He works against Americans. He works for the Chinese. Oh, wait, he left Hong Kong - he works for the Russians."

Edward Snowden

agency sunday party

Privacy matters; privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be.

Edward Snowden

who-we-are matter want

I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy, and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity.

Edward Snowden

creativity important intellectual

If you’re not acting on your beliefs, then they probably aren’t real.

Edward Snowden

acting real belief

When we think in the context of the last decade's infringements upon personal liberty and the last year's revelations, it's not about surveillance. It's about liberty.

Edward Snowden

liberty years thinking

It's really hard to take that step-not only do I believe in something, I believe in it enough that I'm willing to set my own life on fire and burn it to the ground.

Edward Snowden

fire steps believe

The US government still has no idea what documents I have because encryption works

Edward Snowden

encryption government ideas

I have been to the darkest corners of government, and what they fear is light.

Edward Snowden

government light evil

Russia recently passed a law - I think a terrible law - which says you have to store all of the data from Russian citizens on Russian soil just to prevent other countries from playing the same kind of legal games we're playing in this Microsoft case.

Edward Snowden

russia country thinking