Speaking Truth to Power Quotes

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

George Carlin is kind of my template now because George Carlin before was straight laced regular comic and he had short hair, a tie, suit, nightclub guy. Then he said screw it, let his hair grow, just started telling what he thought was the truth. So that's what I'm trying to do.

It's supposed to feel good to throw a brick at the right people. There is a long tradition of naming and ridiculing and shaming and calling the villains what they are. Usually it was the artistocracy of the day and satire was the only way to speak truth to power.

When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.

When I speak out against the guns or against the big corporations, some of my friends say, 'Oh Yoko, be careful. These people have all the power.' But, you know, most people don't speak out because they are frightened.

I think the job of a good journalist, especially in Washington, is to create discomfort, and I think for a certain class of people, and for whom life is quite comfortable, I've created discomfort. So I take that as a badge of honor.

Never, ever regret or apologize for believing that when one man or one woman decides to risk addressing the world with truth, the world may stop what it is doing and hear. There is too much evidence to the contrary.

It's really important that folks be able to speak out.

We must know what we think and speak out, even at the risk of unpopularity.

Winston Churchill was willing to tell the people what they didn’t want to hear, and pay the political price for it…. That kind of leadership we don’t seem to have anymore.

So you have free speech, but you don’t have much to say.

The reason people like the Young Turks is because we say things you're not allowed to say in Washington that are obviously true.

It's up to comedians to shine the light on what's wrong in the world, and we don't want things swept under the rug.

I refuse to be silenced.

I have a lot to say, and if I'm not No. 1, I can't say it.

I will never shrink from speaking truth to power.

Where's the upside in opening your mouth?

We, as a people, we gotta know when it's time to speak up and when it's time to shut up.

I learned something then. And I believe it still. There is a value in taking a stand, whether or not anybody may be noticing it, and whether or not it is a risky thing to do. And if even those who are in danger can raise their lonely voices, isn't it more that is required of all of us, in this land where liberty had her birth? In America the true patriots are those who dare speak truth through power.

I may boldly speak In right, though proud oppression will not hear me!

I've been known not to bite my tongue.

As a novelist, I have a somewhat higher soapbox to stand on than most people do when it comes to talking back to the merchants of fear.

I say what other people won't.

Anita Hill thanklessly put herself and her career as a law professor on the line more than 25 years ago to publicly name Clarence Thomas for sexually harassing her at work.

I've never thought of it consciously... I say exactly what I think, and very often it's totally politically incorrect. I get, always, chastised for it. So it's not shtick. But I think I'm the one who says, 'The emperor has no clothes.'