It's important that we elevate and primarily focus on the rights of American citizens, but it's also important that we don't forget, 95 percent of the world's population lives beyond our own borders.
Edward SnowdenRead
I am not trying to bring down the NSA, I am working to improve the NSA. I am still working for the NSA right now. They are the only ones who don't realize it.
Interpretation
The quote reflects Edward Snowden's intention to reform rather than dismantle the NSA, emphasizing his commitment to improvement over destruction.
Edward Snowden expresses his belief that his actions are not meant to undermine the National Security Agency (NSA), but rather to enhance its operations. He suggests that he continues to support the NSA in secret, indicating his hope for reform while operating from within the system, highlighting a complex relationship between loyalty, ethics, and accountability in intelligence work.
In practice
In a discussion on ethics in government, I might quote Snowden to emphasize the importance of reform over destruction.
It's important that we elevate and primarily focus on the rights of American citizens, but it's also important that we don't forget, 95 percent of the world's population lives beyond our own borders.
I think the most important idea is to remember that there have been times throughout American history where what is right is not the same as what is legal.
Congress hasn't declared war on the countries - the majority of them are our allies - but without asking for public permission, NSA is running network operations against them that affect millions of innocent people. And for what? So we can have secret access to a computer in a country we're not even fighting?
A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all.
Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American, and the more panicked talk we hear from people like him... the better off we all are.
I don't see myself as a hero because what I'm doing is self-interested: I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity.
Martyrdom does not end something, it only a beginning.
I think women should band together to get us more respect in all the businesses that we're in because, you know, if we turn 40, we're nothing and nobody. We all should band together and just say we're not gonna go down like that.
After much soul searching I was able to renounce my past Islamist ideology, challenging everything I was once prepared to die for.
The strangest of our powers _x000D_ Is the courage to live _x000D_ Knowing that we will die, _x000D_ Knowing nothing more true.
I was not athletically inclined. I was very quiet, introverted, non-confrontational. My three older brothers were athletes - basketball, football - but I was kind of a momma's boy. Then one day, my brother Roger encouraged me to go to the boxing gym with him. I tried the gloves on, and it just felt so natural.
I will not take 'but' for an answer. Negroes have been looking at democracy's 'but' too long.
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