“I would love to debate any politician in any western state on the question of whether the rule of law ought to be respected in a world where even the most "respectable" governments establish intelligence agencies that routinely violate those laws at taxpayer expense and at no real penalty to anyone involved.”

The Guardian, "Anonymous: a net gain for liberty" http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/27/anonymous-internet, 27 January 2011.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I would love to debate any politician in any western state on the question of whether the rule of law ought to be respe…" by Barrett Brown?
Barrett Brown photo
Barrett Brown 14
American journalist, essayist and satirist 1981

Related quotes

William Penn photo

“Any government is free to the people under it (whatever be the frame) where the law rules, and the people are a party to those laws, and more than this is tyranny, oligarchy, or confusion.”

William Penn (1644–1718) English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, early Quaker and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania

Frame of Government (1682)
Context: I know what is said by the several admirers of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy, which are the rule of one, a few, and many, and are the three common ideas of government, when men discourse on the subject. But I chuse to solve the controversy with this small distinction, and it belongs to all three: Any government is free to the people under it (whatever be the frame) where the law rules, and the people are a party to those laws, and more than this is tyranny, oligarchy, or confusion.

Sir Francis Buller, 1st Baronet photo
Marsha Blackburn photo
Wesley Clark photo
David Maraga photo

“The greatness of any nation lies in its fidelity to the constitution and adherence to the rule of law and above all respect to God”

David Maraga (1951)

Justice Maraga during the Supreme Coat ruling on the presidential petition on September 1st, 2017 [citation needed]

John F. Kennedy photo

“Certain other societies may respect the rule of force — we respect the rule of law.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

1963, Address at Vanderbilt University

Constantine P. Cavafy photo

“He who hopes to grow in spirit
will have to transcend obedience and respect.
He'll hold to some laws
but he'll mostly violate
both law and custom, and go beyond
the established, inadequate norm.”

Constantine P. Cavafy (1863–1933) Greek poet

Growing in Spirit http://cavafis.compupress.gr/kave_130.htm (1903)
Collected Poems (1992)
Context: He who hopes to grow in spirit
will have to transcend obedience and respect.
He'll hold to some laws
but he'll mostly violate
both law and custom, and go beyond
the established, inadequate norm.
Sensual pleasures will have much to teach him.
He won't be afraid of the destructive act:
half the house will have to come down.
This way he'll grow virtuously into wisdom.

C. A. R. Hoare photo

“In any respectable branch of engineering, failure to observe such elementary precautions would have long been against the law”

C. A. R. Hoare (1934) British computer scientist

The Emperor's Old Clothes
Context: [About Algol 60 subset implementation] [E]very occurrence of every subscript of every subscripted variable was on every occasion checked at run time against both the upper and the lower declared bounds of the array. Many years later we asked our customers whether they wished us to provide an option to switch off these checks in the interests of efficiency on production runs. Unanimously, they urged us not to - they already knew how frequently subscript errors occur on production runs where failure to detect them could be disastrous. I note with fear and horror that even in 1980, language designers and users have not learned this lesson. In any respectable branch of engineering, failure to observe such elementary precautions would have long been against the law.

Alexander Hamilton photo
Gerald Ford photo

“I deeply believe in equal justice for all Americans, whatever their station or former station. The law, whether human or divine, is no respecter of persons; but the law is a respecter of reality.”

Gerald Ford (1913–2006) American politician, 38th President of the United States (in office from 1974 to 1977)

1970s, Remarks on pardoning Nixon (1974)
Context: I deeply believe in equal justice for all Americans, whatever their station or former station. The law, whether human or divine, is no respecter of persons; but the law is a respecter of reality.
The facts, as I see them, are that a former President of the United States, instead of enjoying equal treatment with any other citizen accused of violating the law, would be cruelly and excessively penalized either in preserving the presumption of his innocence or in obtaining a speedy determination of his guilt in order to repay a legal debt to society.
During this long period of delay and potential litigation, ugly passions would again be aroused. And our people would again be polarized in their opinions. And the credibility of our free institutions of government would again be challenged at home and abroad.

Related topics