The savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitarian despot who wants to turn them into puppets.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
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
The people always have some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness. This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
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
Better the rule of One, whom all obey, than to let clamorous demagogues betray our freedom with the kiss of anarchy.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Every wanton and causeless restraint of the will of the subject, whether practised by a monarch, a nobility, or a popular assembly, is a degree of tyranny.
—William Blackstone (1723–80) English Judge, Jurist, Academic
Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Tyranny sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don’t turn against him, they crush those beneath them.
—Emily Bronte (1818–48) English Novelist, Poet
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
Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Tyrants seldom want pretexts.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Dictators always look good until the last minutes.
—Tomas Garrigue Masaryk (1850–1937) First President of Czechoslovakia
One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Novelist
Tyranny is always weakness.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
In inner-party politics, these methods lead, as we shall yet see, to this: the party organization substitutes itself for the party, the central committee substitutes itself for the organization, and, finally, a “dictator” substitutes himself for the central committee.
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Russian Marxist Revolutionary
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
And with necessity, the tyrant’s plea, excused his devilish deeds.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
The tyrant dies and his rule is over; the martyr dies and his rule begins.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
That sovereign is a tyrant who knows no law but his own caprice.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
The mob has many heads but no brains.
—English Proverb
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
It is time to fear when tyrants seem to kiss.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British 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
Dictators never invent their own opportunities.
—Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American Inventor, Philosopher
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 never tasteth of true friendship, nor of perfect liberty.
—Diogenes Laertius (f.3rd Century CE) Biographer of the Greek Philosophers
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
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