We’re devoting this week’s quotes to protest, in honor of the Occupy Wall St protesters. We thought we’d start with some scientists:

Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.
- Albert Einstein

No government has the right to decide on the truth of scientific principles, nor to prescribe in any way the character of the questions investigated. Neither may a government determine the aesthetic value of artistic creations, nor limit the forms of literacy or artistic expression. Nor should it pronounce on the validity of economic, historic, religious, or philosophical doctrines. Instead it has a duty to its citizens to maintain the freedom, to let those citizens contribute to the further adventure and the development of the human race.
- Richard P. Feynman

No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority.
- Robert A. Heinlein

Political tags – such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth – are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.
- Robert A. Heinlein