Schneier Misquote

There’s a quote attributed to me here:

Well-known author and expert on security, Bruce Schneier, born in 1963, maintains “Terrorists can only take my life. Only my government can take my freedom.”

I don’t think I’ve ever said that. It certainly doesn’t sound like something I would say. It’s not in any of my books. It’s not in any of the essays I’ve written.

So I Googled the quote. Here it is being used as a sig in December 2001, without attribution. The real source must be at least as old as that. The immediate source might be this blog. Possibly, it might come from this comment to my blog, reworded and attributed to me:

Surely the man who trades freedom for security theatre deserves both freedom and security less than the first man! I like that quote, “we must remember that we have more power than our enemies to worsen our fate”. Terrorists can, at most, take away my life. They can never take away my freedom. Only my government has the power to do that.

Anyone have any better theories?

Posted on August 2, 2008 at 10:44 AM • 45 Comments