Police State Quotes

• 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

  Country, Fear, Voice

  United States. President (1945-1953 : Truman), Harry S. Truman (1961). “Harry S. Truman: Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President, 1945-53”

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• You learn that you either are going to have a police state where you don't have any freedom left, or you're going to build a world that doesn't create terrorists - and that means a whole different way of 'getting along.'

  John Shelby Spong

  Mean, Police, Different

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• Step by step we see democracy being uprooted like an unwanted weed and the preparation for fascism, for a police state in America. The Congress is largely complicit. The media is supportive. The public is apathetic. By the time apathy is reversed, there may be little opportunity to restore what was lost without massive effort and pain.

  Stan Moore

  Weed, Pain, Opportunity

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• A police state is a country run by criminals

  Robert Harris

  Running, Country, Police

  Robert Harris (1994). “Fatherland”, HarperPrism

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• In a police state, referencing one's rights is seen as an act of aggression.

  Philip Schuyler

  Rights, Police, Referencing

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• A policemans job is only easy in a police state.

  Charlton Heston

  Jobs, Police, Easy

  "Fictional character: Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas". "Touch of Evil", www.imdb.com. 1958.

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• I think perhaps of all the things a police state can do to its citizens, distorting history is possibly the most pernicious.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Thinking, Police, Citizens

  "The Past Through Tomorrow" by Robert A. Heinlein, G. P. Putnam Inc., (p. 401), 1967.

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• I'm tired of living in a police state.

  L. Neil Smith

  Tired, Police, States

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  If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

  James Madison

  Inspirational, Freedom, Fear

  "The Last Enemy" by Rebecca Sato, www.pbs.org. November 11, 2010.

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• If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.

  George Orwell

  Time, Freedom, Future

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• If middle-class Americans do not feel threatened by the slow encroachment of the police state or the Patriot Act, it is because they live comfortably enough and exercise their liberties very lightly, never testing the boundaries. You never know you are in a prison unless you try the door.

  Joe Bageant

  Exercise, Doors, Class

  Joe Bageant (2008). “Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War”, p.173, Broadway Books

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• It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state.

  Bruce Schneier

  Technology, Hygiene, Police

  Bruce Schneier (2011). “Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World”, p.56, John Wiley & Sons

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• Such an atmosphere is un-American, the most un-American thing we have to contend with today. It is the climate of a totalitarian country in which scientists are expected to change their theories to match changes in the police state's propaganda line.

  Harry S. Truman

  Country, Science, Police

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• The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.

  Edmund Burke

  Wisdom, Freedom, Giving Up

  Speech at County Meeting of Buckinghamshire, 1784

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• Ten minutes in a video store should convince any impartial observer that we live in a police state of consciousness, far more pervasive than the Nazis.

  Hakim Bey

  Police, Video, Consciousness

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• Hitler had a police state of the first order. And those who showed any sign of being weak-kneed faced prison or often summary execution. That prevented a lot of people who knew that the war was not going to turn out well for Germany from giving up.

  Rick Atkinson

  Giving Up, War, Order

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• In the American political lexicon, 'change' always means more of the same: more government, more looting of Americans, more inflation, more police-state measures, more unnecessary war, and more centralization of power.

  Ron Paul

  War, Mean, Government

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• Once the people are terrorized, you can force a police state on them.

  Mae Brussell

  People, Police, States

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• The free state offers what a police state denies - the privacy of the home, the dignity and peace of mind of the individual.

  William O. Douglas

  Home, Police, Mind

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• Unless we abandon elements which resemble a police state, we can't meet the demands of being a modern society.

  Ahmet Necdet Sezer

  Police, Elements, Demand

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• A functioning police state needs no police.

  William S. Burroughs

  Government, Police, Atheism

  William S. Burroughs (1984). “Naked lunch”, Grove Pr

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• Coming of age in a fascist police state will not be a barrel of fun for anybody, much less for people like me, who are not inclined to suffer Nazis gladly and feel only contempt for the cowardly flag-suckers who would gladly give up their outdated freedom to live for the mess of pottage they have been conned into believing will be freedom from fear.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Fun, Giving Up, Believe

  Hunter S. Thompson (2011). “Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the F”, p.22, Simon and Schuster

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• The climax of terror is reached when the police state begins to devour its own children, when yesterday's executioner becomes today's victim.

  Hannah Arendt

  Children, Yesterday, Police

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• A police state finds that it cannot command the grain to grow.

  John F. Kennedy

  Police, States, Tyranny

  Kennedy, John F. (1964). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963”, p.18, Best Books on

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• To be a member of the Communist Party is to have a taste of the police state. It is a diluted taste but it is bitter and unforgettable.

  Elia Kazan

  Party, Police, Taste

  "A Statement: Communism, Free-Speech, and 'Naming Names'" by Elia Kazan, www.capitalismmagazine.com. April 19, 1999.

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