A Quote by Edward Snowden

The public needs to know the kinds of things a government does in its name, or the 'consent of the governed' is meaningless... The consent of the governed is not consent if it is not informed.

Edward Snowden

Quote Topics

Consent Consent Of The Governed Does Governed Government Informed Kinds Know Meaningless Name Needs Public Things

Quote Author

Edward Snowden
American - Activist
Born: June 21, 1983

Once one accepts the premise of the Declaration of Independence - that governments derive "their just powers from the consent of the governed" - it follows that the governed must, in order to exercise their right of consent, have full freedom of expression.

Thomas I. Emerson

The consent of the governed is not consent if it is not informed.

Edward Snowden

We set up government by consent of the governed, and the Bill of Rights denies those in power any legal opportunity to coerce that consent. Authority here is to be controlled by public opinion, not public opinion by authority.

Robert H. Jackson

As long as women consent to be unjustly governed, they will be; but directly women say: "We withhold our consent," we will not be governed any longer as long as government is unjust.

Emmeline Pankhurst

The Assad regime has lost the consent of the governed, and it is difficult to see how a replacement Alawite regime would be able to regain this consent.

Elliott Abrams

Democratic government requires the consent of the governed.

John McDonnell

Does a population have informed consent when a ruling minority acts in secret to ignite a war, doing this to justify the existence of the minority's forces? ... Failure to provide full information for informed consent on such an issue represents an ultimate crime.

Frank Herbert

Our constitutions purport to be established by 'the people,' and, in theory, 'all the people' consent to such government as the constitutions authorize. But this consent of 'the people' exists only in theory. It has no existence in fact. Government is in reality established by the few; and these few assume the consent of all the rest, without any such consent being actually given.

Lysander Spooner

For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.

Jonathan Swift

You have to look at what the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous people says which is free and prior informed consent. Now, if you say 'we're going to build a pipeline, what does it take for us as the colonial power of Canada to make you agree?' That's not free, prior and informed consent, that's coercion.

Elizabeth May

We were given a system of government that places the people at the center of all decision-making and relies on the consent of the governed, with our rights and the government's limitations clearly outlined.

Cathy McMorris Rodgers

Government itself is founded upon the great doctrine of the consent of the governed, and has its cornerstone in the memorable principle that men are endowed with inalienable rights.

Leland Stanford

The only idea they have ever manifested as to what is a government of consent, is this - that it is one to which everybody must consent, or be shot.

Lysander Spooner

Nobody can make you angry without your consent, nobody can disappoint you without your consent, you have to give people consent to do these things.

Charlamagne tha God

Two hundred years ago, our Founding Fathers gave us a democracy. It was based upon the simple, yet noble, idea that government derives its validity from the consent of the governed.