The Fifth Estate Quotes

  • Julian Assange: Man is least himself when he talks with his own person. But if you give him a mask, he will tell you the truth. Two people, and a secret: the beginning of all conspiracies. More people, and, more secrets. But if we could find one moral man, one whistle-blower. Someone willing to expose those secrets, that man can topple the most powerful and most repressive of regimes.

  • Sarah Shaw: Do you think the President of Turkmenistan will be more upset that I called him a practised liar or that I called him vain?

    James Boswell: I don't think he's worried about the opinions of a mid-level foreign attaché.

    Sarah Shaw: That's why I signed Hillary's name to it.

  • Julian Assange: You can't go far in this world by relying on people. People are loyal until it seems opportune not to be.

  • Daniel Berg: Courage is contagious. Right?

  • Julian Assange: The world needs to know!

  • Julian Assange: If you want the truth, no one is going to tell you the truth, they're going to tell you their version. So if you want the truth, you have to seek it out for yourself. In fact that's where power lies, in your willingness to look beyond this story, any story. And as long as you keep searching, you are dangerous to them. That's what they're afraid of: you. It's all about you. And a little bit about me too.

  • Birgitta Jónsdóttir: [watching Julian dance] He's like an octopus, he's like everywhere at the same time!

    Daniel Berg: Yeah!

    Julian Assange: Come on, Daniel, you need space to let your ego FLOW!

  • Julian Assange: As Oscar Wilde said, "Man is least himself when he talks with his own person. Give a man a mask, and he will tell you the truth. "

  • Daniel Berg: We're going to have to push back publication, there's no way we can release in four days.

    Julian Assange: Fourteen pages in the Guardian. Twelve in the New York Times. This is more coverage than all of the leaks we have had combined. We're winning an information war, which goes beyond any short or eternal lines we have with the mainstream media, and you want to throw it all away because you fear that some US government informant might come to harm?

    Daniel Berg: These are human beings, Julian. There are lives at stake!

    Julian Assange: And what about the lives of the soldiers and the civilians involved in these conflicts? Death squads, unreported civilian casualties, countless incidents of friendly fire - this is information THE WORLD NEEDS TO KNOW! So the next time you find yourself lecturing me about this organisation, please try to remember, why I created it and why I hired you to help me.

    Daniel Berg: That's funny. I don't remember you hiring me. I don't recall a contract, or a salary. But I guess I should have known when I met Jay Lim. There is no organisation. There's just you, and your ego. And the lies you tell to get whatever the fuck you want!

    Julian Assange: You know it's incredible, how much time you can spend with a person and still have no idea who they are.

    [pause]

    Julian Assange: You're suspended. Effective immediately.

  • Julian Assange: I've heard people say I dangle on the autistic spectrum. Probably why I lean so heavily on those around me.

  • Sarah Shaw: You don't want ugly pictures, you should stay out of ugly wars.

  • Julian Assange: I have a son in Melbourne. He turns nineteen next week, I haven't seen him in a year. It takes two things to change the world, and you'd be surprised how many people have good ideas. But commitment, true commitment, that's the hard one. It requires sacrifice.

  • Julian Assange: Free people must have knowledge.

  • Daniel Berg: Editing reflects bias.

  • Julian Assange: It does not matter how small you are as long as you have faith and a plan of action.

  • Sarah Shaw: If you don't want ugly pictures, you should stay out of ugly wars.

  • Nick Davies: Morals aside, it's about how you're perceived.

  • Julian Assange: [Typing] There must be faith in leadership in times of crisis.

  • Julian Assange: Revolution is the struggle between the past and the future. And the future has just begun.

  • Daniel Berg: I guess everyone has secrets, scars, moments in time that shape them. Some we can get past. Some we can't.

  • Daniel Berg: Only someone so obsessed with his own secrets could have come up with a way to reveal everyone else's.

  • Nick Davies: The tyrants of the world should beware. Knowing that now, we have the power to demand the information that one day soon will wash them all away.