The worst form of tyranny the world has ever known the tyranny of the weak over the strong. It is the only tyranny that lasts.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Death is softer by far than tyranny.
—Aeschylus (525–456 BCE) Greek Playwright
There are three kinds of despots. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the body. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul and body alike. The first is called the Prince. The second is called the Pope. The third is called the People.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
People who live in the post-totalitarian system know only too well that the question of whether one or several political parties are in power, and how these parties define and label themselves, is of far less importance than the question of whether or not it is possible to live like a human being.
—Vaclav Havel (1936–2011) Czech Dramatist, Statesman
Tyranny sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Violence ever defeats its own ends. Where you cannot drive you can always persuade. A gentle word, a kind look, a god-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles. There is a secret pride in every human heart than revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) American Head of State
Like Cato, give his little senate laws, and sit attentive to his own applause.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
The arbitrary rule of a just and enlightened prince is always bad. His virtues are the most dangerous and the surest form of seduction: they lull a people imperceptibly into the habit of loving, respecting, and serving his successor, whoever that successor may be, no matter how wicked or stupid.
—Denis Diderot (1713–84) French Philosopher, Writer
There is a natural and necessary progression, from the extreme of anarchy to the extreme of tyranny; and arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.
—George Washington (1732–99) American Head of State, Military Leader
Rulers, who neither see, nor feel, nor know, but leech-like to their fainting country cling, till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow,—a people starved and stabbed in the untilled field…
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
It is time to fear when tyrants seem to kiss.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Free governments have committed more flagrant acts of tyranny than the most perfectly despotic governments we have ever known.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
—William Pitt the Younger (1759–1806) British Prime Minister
Tyranny and anarchy are never far asunder.
—Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) British Philosopher, Economist
The poor suffer twice at the rioter’s hands. First, his destructive fury scars their neighborhood; second, the atmosphere of accommodation and consent is changed to one of hostility and resentment.
—Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) American Head of State, Political leader
Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
A king ruleth as he ought; a tyrant as he lists; a king to the profit of all, a tyrant only to please a few.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
In every tyrant’s heart there springs in the end this poison, that he cannot trust a friend.
—Aeschylus (525–456 BCE) Greek Playwright
Dictators never invent their own opportunities.
—Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American Inventor, Philosopher
So long as war is the main business of nations, temporary despotism—despotism during the campaign—is indispensable.
—Walter Bagehot (1826–77) English Economist, Journalist
Tyranny is always weakness.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
The tyrant dies and his rule is over; the martyr dies and his rule begins.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
A rioter with a Molotov cocktail in his hands is not fighting for civil rights any more than a Klansman with a sheet on his back and a mask on his face.
—Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) American Head of State, Political leader
Never permit a dichotomy to rule your life, a dichotomy in which you hate what you do so you can have pleasure in your spare time. Look for a situation in which your work will give you as much happiness as your spare time.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
A tyrant is the worst disease, and the cause of all others.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
Tyranny is far the worst of treasons.—The prince who neglects or violates his trust is more a brigand than the robber-chief.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Because the regime is captive to its own lies, it must falsify everything. It falsifies the past. It falsifies the present, and it falsifies the future. It falsifies statistics. It pretends not to possess an omnipotent and unprincipled police apparatus. It pretends to respect human rights. It pretends to prosecute no one. It pretends to fear nothing. It pretends to pretend nothing.
—Vaclav Havel (1936–2011) Czech Dramatist, Statesman
If we must have a tyrant, let him at least be a gentleman who has been bred to the business, and let us fall by the axe and not by the butcher’s cleaver.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Tyrants forego all respect for humanity in proportion as they are sunk beneath it. Taught to believe themselves of a different species, they really become so, lose their participation with their kind, and in mimicking the god dwindle into the brute.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
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