Assange Quotes & Sayings

Cryptography is the ultimate form of non-violent direct action. — Julian Assange

Assange is not a 'journalist' any more than the 'editor' of al-Qaeda's new English-language magazine 'Inspire' is a 'journalist.' He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands. — Sarah Palin

Consistency was a matter of style and values-not where you parked your car. — Julian Assange

We have some material on spying by a major government on the tech industry. Industrial espionage. — Julian Assange

In a film muddied by fictional detail, the new Spielberg production 'Fifth Estate's portrayal of the 'Guardian's work with Wikileaks is accurate in describing the running dispute between journalists who wanted to redact documents to make them safe and Julian Assange, who wanted no such restraint. — Nick Davies

When Enron collapsed, through court processes, thousands and thousands of emails came out that were internal, and it provided a window into how the whole company was managed. It was all the little decisions that supported the flagrant violations. — Julian Assange

The act of assassination - the targeting of visible individuals, is the result of mental inclinations honed for the pre-literate societies in which our species evolved, — Julian Assange

Snowden's itinerary does, however, seem to bear the fingerprints of Julian Assange. Assange was often quick to criticise the US and other western nations when they abused human rights. But he was reluctant to speak out against governments that supported his personal efforts to avoid extradition. — Luke Harding

It is impossible to correct abuses unless we know that theyre going on. — Julian Assange

That's a problem. I mean, like any sort of growing startup organization, we are sort of overwhelmed by our growth. And that means we're getting enormous quantity of whistleblower disclosures of a very high caliber, but don't have enough people to actually process and vet this information. — Julian Assange

Every time we witness an act that we feel to be unjust and do not act, we become a party to injustice. — Julian Assange

Journalists always like an excuse for why are they talking about something now when they didn't talk about something a week ago. They always like to say something is new. — Julian Assange

Those who are repeatedly passive in the face of injustice soon find their character corroded. — Julian Assange

Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has on several occasions talked about transparency as an absolute principle. I don't personally believe that. — Bill Keller

Big Brother is home. He is installed in the item you just dragged home from the Apple store. — Julian Assange

I had had a lot of experience in bringing the Internet to Australia, and I saw that knowledge in the hands of people achieves reform. — Julian Assange

Why is it that govt employees makes the best spouses? Because afterthey come back from work, they are not tired and they already readthe newspapers. — Julian Assange

Well, I mean, the real attack on truth is tabloid journalism in the United States. — Julian Assange

To keep a person ignorant is to place them in a cage. — Julian Assange

Capable, generous men do not create victims, they nurture victims. — Julian Assange

This generation is burning the mass media to the ground. — Julian Assange

These big-package releases. There should be a cute name for them. — Julian Assange

WikiLeaks is a service to the population. Assange should get an award for - presidential medal of honor. — Noam Chomsky

We always expect tremendous criticism. It is my role to be the lightning rod ... to attract the attacks against the organization for our work, and that is a difficult role. On the other hand, I get undue credit. — Julian Assange

These megaleaks ... They're an important phenomenon, and they're only going to increase. — Julian Assange

They antagonised Julian Assange over six lines from OT VII and he ended up releasing 612 pages' worth of all the OT levels. In — Steve Cannane

And if Bradley Manning really did as he is accused, he is a hero, an example to us all and one of the world's foremost political prisoners. — Julian Assange

What are the differences between Mark Zuckerberg and me? I give private information on corporations to you for free, and I'm a villain. Zuckerberg gives your private information to corporations for money and he's Man of the Year. — Julian Assange

Censorship is always cause for celebration. It is always an opportunity because it reveals fear of reform. It means that the power position is so weak that you have got to care what people think. — Julian Assange

Google's colourful, playful logo is imprinted on human retinas just under six billion times each day, 2.1 trillion times a year - an opportunity for respondent conditioning enjoyed by no other company in history. — Julian Assange

If wars can be started by lies, they can be stopped by truth. — Julian Assange

What we know is everything, it is our limit, of what we can be. — Julian Assange

What is the possible benefit? Can this material save lives? Can it improve the quality of life in Iraq? Can it tend to shape our perceptions of how war should and should not be conducted? Can it shape our perceptions of who should be conducting war and in what manner? And the answer to that is a clear yes. — Julian Assange

The internet, our greatest tool of emancipation, has been transformed into the most dangerous facilitator of totalitarianism we have ever seen. The internet is a threat to human civilization. — Julian Assange

I'm not a big fan of regulation: anyone who likes freedom of the press can't be. — Julian Assange

It is the media that controls the boundaries of what is politically permissible, so better to change the media. Profit motives work against it, but if we can have the audience understand that most other forms of journalism are not credible, then it may be a forced move. — Julian Assange

In many ways, I'm a big admirer still of Julian Assange. He had balls to do what he did and his motivations in terms of holding the powerful to account are tremendously inspiring to me. — Alex Gibney

I always believed that WikiLeaks as a concept would perform a global role, and to some degree it was clear that it was doing that as far back as 2007 when it changed the result of the Kenyan general election. — Julian Assange

We all only live once. So we are obligated to make good use of the time that we have and to do something that is meaningful and satisfying. This is something that I find meaningful and satisfying ... I enjoy helping people who are vulnerable. And I enjoy crushing bastards. — Julian Assange

If journalism is good, it is controversial, by its nature. — Julian Assange

In the physical world, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a wanted man. — Rebecca MacKinnon

The sense of perspective that interaction with multiple cultures gives you I find to be extremely valuable, because it allows you to see the structure of a country with greater clarity, and gives you a sense of mental independence. — Julian Assange

Reality is an aspect of property. It must be seized. And investigative journalism is the noble art of seizing reality back from the powerful. — Julian Assange

Every law, every constitution, every regulative decision is based upon what people are discussing in their community. It's based upon our sum knowledge of history and the present. — Julian Assange

We get information in the mail, the regular postal mail, encrypted or not, vet it like a regular news organization, format it - which is sometimes something that's quite hard to do, when you're talking about giant databases of information - release it to the public and then defend ourselves against the inevitable legal and political attacks. — Julian Assange

That is vaguely conspiratorial, in a networking sense. We have published their meeting notes. — Julian Assange

The penetration of society by the Internet and the penetration of the Internet by society is the best thing that has ever happened to global human civilisation. — Julian Assange

Opponents past and present have the same essential weakness about them: first they want to use you, then they want to be you, then they want to snuff you out. — Julian Assange

Bitcoin actually has the balance and incentives right, and that is why it is starting to take off. — Julian Assange

I wonder if 50 years from now we'll look back, and maybe Julian Assange will be the hero and J. Edgar Hoover will be the enemy of the state. — Rick Smolan

We are all Julian Assange. Serious reporters discuss classified information every day - go to any Washington or New York dinner party where real journalists are present, and you will hear discussion of leaked or classified information. That is journalists' job in a free society. — Naomi Wolf

In my role as Wikileaks editor, I've been involved in fighting off many legal attacks. To do that, and keep our sources safe, we have had to spread assets, encrypt everything, and move telecommunications and people around the world to activate protective laws in different national jurisdictions. — Julian Assange

We don't have sources who are dissidents on other sources. Should they come forward, that would be a tricky situation for us. But we're presumably acting in such a way that people feel morally compelled to continue our mission, not to screw it up. — Julian Assange

I may be a chauvinist pig of some sort, but I'm no rapist. — Julian Assange

My family has had to move and change their name and have been subject to threats from right wing blogs calling for my son, for example, to be killed to get at me. — Julian Assange

I coauthored my first nonfiction book by the time I was 25. I have been involved in nonfiction documentaries, newspapers, TV and internet since that time. — Julian Assange

Here then is the truth about the Truth; the Truth is not bridge, sturdy to every step, a marvel of bound planks and supports from the known into the unknown, but a surging sea of smashed wood, flotsam and drowning sailors. — Julian Assange

We released 400,000 classified documents, the most extraordinary history of a war to ever have been released in our civilization. Those documents cover 109,000 deaths. That is serious matter. — Julian Assange

One of the best ways to achieve justice is to expose injustice. — Julian Assange

Cryptography is the essential building block of independence for organisations on the Internet, just like armies are the essential building blocks of states, because otherwise one state just takes over another. — Julian Assange

The west has fiscalised its basic power relationships through a web of contracts, loans, shareholdings, bank holdings and so on. In such an environment it is easy for speech to be "free" because a change in political will rarely leads to any change in these basic instruments. Western speech, as something that rarely has any effect on power, is, like badgers and birds, free. In states like China, there is pervasive censorship, because speech still has power and power is scared of it. We should always look at censorship as an economic signal that reveals the potential power of speech in that jurisdiction. — Julian Assange

Well, there's a question as to what sort of information is important in the world, what sort of information can achieve reform. And there's a lot of information. So information that organizations are spending economic effort into concealing, that's a really good signal that when the information gets out, there's a hope of it doing some good. — Julian Assange

I enjoy crushing bastards. So it is enjoyable work. — Julian Assange

I guess I could be singing about Superman, or about Zarathustra coming down from the mountain, but in my mind I was singing about Julian Assange. I wish I could say that Nietzsche inspired my lyrics but all I can honestly say is I was inspired by the graphic design of these '70s paperback covers for Beyond Good & Evil and The Birth of Tragedy and The Gay Science. — Dean Wareham

The truth is the only way that we can get anywhere. — Julian Assange

Knowledge has always flowed upwards to bishops and kings, not down to serfs and slaves. — Julian Assange

The Iraq War was the biggest issue for people of my generation in the West. It was also the clearest case, in my living memory, of media manipulation and the creation of a war through ignorance. — Julian Assange

'Sir' Richard Branson may be the Julian Assange of British business, in that both believe the world revolves around them. Hence Branson's decision to set up an air service between Manchester and London, above the route of the train line that's been taken from him. — Simon Hoggart

In the United Kingdom at various stages, journalism has been the profession of gentlemen amateurs. And some of them even pride themselves on being amateurs. Their quality is not comparable with the quality of intelligence services even if most of them harbor a remarkable degree of corruption and incompetence. — Julian Assange

Secrecy breeds incompetence because where there is failure, failure is kept secret. — Julian Assange

We have a way of dealing with information that has sort of personal - personally identifying information in it. But there are legitimate secrets - you know, your records with your doctor; that's a legitimate secret. But we deal with whistleblowers that are coming forward that are really sort of well motivated. — Julian Assange

Transparency in government leads to reduced corruption. — Julian Assange

Every time you go to a party and take a picture and post that picture to Facebook, you're being a rat. You're being a narc. — Julian Assange

Wikileaks is a mechanism to maximize the flow of information to maximize the amount of action leading to just reform. — Julian Assange

I saw that publishing all over the world was deeply constrained by self-censorship, economics and political censorship, while the military-industrial complex was growing at a tremendous rate, and the amount of information that it was collecting about all of us vastly exceeded the public imagination. — Julian Assange

If we can only live once, let it be a daring adventure. — Julian Assange

Dont shoot the messenger for revealing uncomfortable truths. — Julian Assange

If instituted, the TPP's IP regime would trample over individual rights and free expression, as well as ride roughshod over the intellectual and creative commons. If you read, write, publish, think, listen, dance, sing or invent; if you farm or consume food; if you're ill now or might one day be ill, the TPP has you in its crosshairs. — Julian Assange

Although I still write, research and investigate, my role is primarily that of a publisher and editor-in-chief who organises and directs other journalists. — Julian Assange

I am an Australian citizen, and I miss my country a great deal. — Julian Assange

I'm constantly annoyed that people are distracted by false conspiracies such as 9/11, when all around we provide evidence of real conspiracies, for war or mass financial fraud. — Julian Assange

Seeing ongoing political reforms that have a real impact on people all over the world is extremely satisfying. But we want every person who's having a dispute with their kindergarten to feel confident about sending us material. — Julian Assange

You can either be informed and your own rulers, or you can be ignorant and have someone else, who is not ignorant, rule over you. — Julian Assange

JA: We wouldn't mind a leak from Google, which would be, I think,
probably all the Patriot Act requests.275
ES: Which would be [whispers] illegal.
[Nervous chuckles]
JA: It depends on the jurisdiction ... !
[Chuckles]
ES: We are a US
JA: There are higher laws. First Amendment, you know.
ES: No, I've actually spent quite a bit of time on this question because I am
in great trouble because I have given a series of criticisms about Patriot I
and Patriot II, because they're nontransparent, because the judge's orders
are hidden and so forth and so on. The answer is that the laws are quite
clear about Google in the US. We couldn't do it. It would be illegal. — Julian Assange

During the period of house arrest, I had an electronic manacle around my leg for 24 hours a day, and for someone who has tried to give others liberty all their adult life, that is absolutely intolerable. — Julian Assange

I feel that Julian Assange came to be both paranoid and self-regarding in ways that ultimately undermined his own mission. And so, the transparency radical became a secret-keeper instead of a secret-leaker. And that, I think, is a big problem. — Alex Gibney

Non-conformity is the only real passion worth being ruled by. — Julian Assange

WikiLeaks is really a litmus test for those people who walk the talk in the media. How much will they really follow their protestations to be brave publishers, and how much do they really want to lick the boots of power? Well, you can tell by their engagement with us and what they do. — Julian Assange

We like to engage in a normal publishing effort, which is to act in a responsible manner and make sure the material is not likely to harm anyone, that it is properly investigated by quality news organizations, and by lawyers and human rights groups and so on. — Julian Assange

I don't like the word transparency; cold dead glass is transparent. I prefer education or understanding, which are more human. — Julian Assange

Julian Assange is certainly no hero. The man behind WikiLeaks issued threats as if he were Dr. No bent on ending civilization as we know it. We will find him, lock him up, and throw away the key. But give the man credit; for a week the truth was laid bare. — Martin Cruz Smith

The attack on the truth by war begins long before war starts and continues long after a war ends. — Julian Assange

The aim of Wikileaks is to achieve just reform around the world and do it through the mechanism of transparency. — Julian Assange

Julian Assange is self-consciously an individual. He thinks in his own way, primarily as a physicist, having studied pure maths and physics at university in Australia where he grew up. — Nick Davies

Where they couldn't pick holes in our arguments they would drive horses and carriages through my character. — Julian Assange

Federal prosecutors want to indict Julian Assange for making public a great many classified documents. — Barton Gellman

Nothing. There's nothing you can do. As soon as you do something you'll no-longer be average. — Julian Assange

It is getting to the point where the mark of international distinction and service to humanity is no longer the Nobel Peace Price, but an espionage indictment from the US Department of Justice. — Julian Assange

Through the confessional system, the Catholic church spied upon the lives of its congregants. While Latin mass excluded most people who could not speak Latin from an understanding of the very system of thought that bound them. — Julian Assange

I mean there's enormous pressures to harmonize freedom of speech legislation and transparency legislation around the world - within the E.U., between China and the United States. Which way is it going to go? It's hard to see. — Julian Assange