Government Quotes by Edward Snowden

I have no relationship with the Russian government at all.

— Edward Snowden

So many of the things we're told by the government simply aren't true.

— Edward Snowden

I'm still working for the government.

— Edward Snowden

The United States Government has placed me on no-fly lists.

— Edward Snowden

If I defected at all, I defected from the government to the public

— Edward Snowden

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

— Edward Snowden

As I said before, [patriotism] is distinct from acting to benefit the government - a distinction that's increasingly lost today.

— Edward Snowden

If the government or the parties won't address our needs, we will. It's about direct action, even civil disobedience.

— Edward Snowden

There's a real danger in the way our representative government functions today. It functions properly only when paired with accountability.

— Edward Snowden

Allowing the U.S. government to intimidate its people with threats of retaliation for revealing wrongdoing is contrary to the public interest.

— Edward Snowden

The charges [government] brought against me, for example, explicitly denied my ability to make a public-interest defense.

— Edward Snowden

What the government wants is something they never had before. They want total awareness. The question is, is that something we should…

— Edward Snowden

I have had no contact with the Chinese government. I only work with journalists.

— Edward Snowden

You have ceded the concept of your own rights. You've converted them into something you get as a revocable privilege from the…

— Edward Snowden

Before 2013, if you said the NSA was making records of everybody's phone calls and the [Government Communications Headquarters] was monitoring lawyers…

— Edward Snowden

Our rights are not granted by governments. They are inherent to our nature. But it's entirely the opposite for governments: their privileges…

— Edward Snowden

Ultimately, if people lose their willingness to recognize that there are times in our history when legality becomes distinct from morality, we…

— Edward Snowden

Look at the reactions of liberal governments to the surveillance revelations during the last years. In the United States, we've got this…

— Edward Snowden

Going all the way back to Daniel Ellsberg, it is clear that the government is not concerned with damage to national security,…

— Edward Snowden

I've talked to a lot of pretty good lawyers around the world. I'm non-extraditable. That's the real reason the US government was…

— Edward Snowden

When we talk about the assertion of basically new government privileges with weak or no justification, we don't even have to look…

— Edward Snowden

Society really seems to have developed an unquestioning obedience towards spooky types… Did we get to where we are today via a…

— Edward Snowden

If I and other whistleblowers are sentenced to long years in prison without so much as a chance to explain our motivations…

— Edward Snowden

At the trial of Chelsea Manning, the government could point to no case of specific damage that had been caused by the…

— Edward Snowden

The reality is if we sit back and allow a few officials behind closed doors to launch offensive attacks without any oversight…

— Edward Snowden

We don't have a great clash of civilizations, a clash of ideologies, a clash of alternative models, where governments thought to themselves,…

— Edward Snowden

By leaning on companies, by leaning on infrastructure providers, by leaning on researchers, graduate students, post-docs, even undergrads, to look at the…

— Edward Snowden

Every time you pick up the phone, dial a number, write an e-mail, make a purchase, travel on the bus carrying a…

— Edward Snowden

I think that's actually what's missing from government, for the most part. We've got a lot of policy people, but we have…

— Edward Snowden

“I was right outside the NSA [on 9/11], so I remember the tension on that day. I remember hearing on the radio,…

— Edward Snowden

I know the media likes to personalize political debates, and I know the government will demonize me.

— Edward Snowden

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

— Edward Snowden

The big tech companies understood that the government had not only damaged American principles, it had hurt their businesses.

— Edward Snowden

There can be no faith in government if our highest offices are excused from scrutiny - they should be setting the example…

— Edward Snowden

When you are subverting the power of government, that's a fundamentally dangerous thing to democracy.

— Edward Snowden

The US government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming, and…

— Edward Snowden

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

— Edward Snowden

I told the government I'd volunteer for prison, as long as it served the right purpose,

— Edward Snowden

I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world…

— Edward Snowden

The government has granted itself power it is not entitled to. There is no public oversight. The result is people like myself…

— Edward Snowden