Totalitarian Regimes Quotes

• There is an absolutely fundamental hostility on the part of totalitarian regimes toward religion.

  Jeane Kirkpatrick

  Fundamentals, Regimes, Hostility

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• The real point is that totalitarian regimes have claimed jurisdiction over the whole person, and the whole society, and they don't at all believe that we should give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's.

  Jeane Kirkpatrick

  Real, Believe, Giving

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• Advances in the technology of communications have proved an unambiguous threat to totalitarian regimes: Fax machines enable dissidents to bypass state-controlled print media; direct-dial telephone makes it difficult for a state to control interpersonal voice communication; and satellite broadcasting makes it possible for information-hungry residents of many closed societies to bypass state-controlled television channels.

  Rupert Murdoch

  Technology, Regimes, Threat

  "Murdoch and China". www.theguardian.com. August 24, 2003.

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• There is a totalitarian regime inside every one of us. We are ruled by a ruthless politburo which sets our norms and drives us from one five-year plan to another. The autonomous individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.

  Eric Hoffer

  Years, Effort, Individuality

  Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

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• A lawn is nature under totalitarian rule.

  Michael Pollan

  Environment, Grass, Lawns

  Michael Pollan (2007). “Second Nature: A Gardener's Education”, p.48, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• The great strength of the totalitarian state is that it forces those who fear it to imitate it.

  Adolf Hitler

  Fear, Political, Mein Kampf

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state...

  Noam Chomsky

  Media, Political, Democracy

  "On Propaganda". WBAI Interview, chomsky.info. January 1992.

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• The individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.

  Eric Hoffer

  Effort, Individuality, Literature

  Eric Hoffer (1963). “The Ordeal of Change”

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• Only the freedom of mind can prevent the state from becoming totalitarian and from issuing totalitarian demands.

  Friedrich Durrenmatt

  Mind, Demand, Becoming

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• Perfection spawns doctrines, dictators and totalitarian ideas.

  Antonio Tabucchi

  Ideas, Perfection, Doctrine

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• A claim for equality of material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Equality, Government, Liberty

  "Law, Legislation and Liberty" by Friedrich August von Hayek, Vol. 2 : The Mirage of Social Justice, (Ch. 9), 1976.

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• We invaded Iraq to change a totalitarian, despotic regime, and we have been successful there.

  Judd Gregg

  Change, Successful, Iraq

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• Gun control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her panty hose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.

  L. Neil Smith

  Gun, Found Dead, Panty Hose

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• 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

  Hater, Nature, Angel

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• When the United States aligns with dictatorships and totalitarian regimes, it compromises the basic democratic principles of its foundation - namely, life, liberty and justice for all.

  Benazir Bhutto

  Justice For All, Liberty, Foundation

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• Fifty-one percent of a nation can establish a totalitarian regime, suppress minorities and still remain democratic.

  Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

  Freedom, Government, Democracy

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• People tell me, 'Bill, let it go. The Kennedy assassination was years ago. It was just the assassination of a President and the hijacking of our government by a totalitarian regime - who cares? Just let it go.' I say, 'All right then. That whole Jesus thing? Let it go! It was 2,000 years ago! Who cares?'

  Bill Hicks

  Jesus, Government, Years

  "Bill Hicks: Revelations". Documentary, Comedy, 1993.

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• Weak logic, inconsistencies and alienation from the people are common features of authoritarianism. The relentless attempts of totalitarian regimes to prevent free thought and new ideas and the persistent assertion of their own rightness bring on them an intellectual stasis which they project on to the nation at large. Intimidation and propaganda work in a duet of oppression, while the people, lapped in fear and distrust, learn to dissemble and to keep silent.

  Aung San Suu Kyi

  Ideas, People, Intellectual

  "In Quest of Democracy". Essay by Aung San Suu Kyi, 1991.

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• The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want.

  Harry S. Truman

  War, Want, Misery

  The Truman Doctrine, delivered 12 March 1947 before a Joint Session of Congress

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• The great enemy of any totalitarian regime is normalization and trade.

  Robert Scheer

  Enemy, Regimes, Trade

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• Abortion on demand is the ultimate State tyranny; the State simply declares that certain classes of human beings are not persons, and therefore not entitled to the protection of the law. The State protects the 'right' of some people to kill others, just as the courts protected the 'property rights' of slave masters in their slaves. Moreover, by this method the State achieves a goal common to all totalitarian regimes: it sets us against each other, so that our energies are spent in the struggle between State-created classes, rather than in freeing all individuals from the State.

  Ron Paul

  Struggle, Law, Class

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• It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor. ... Some of the worst tyrannies of our day genuinely are "vowed" to the service of mankind, yet can function only by pitting neighbor against neighbor. The all-seeing eye of a totalitarian regime is usually the watchful eye of the next-door neighbor. In a Communist state love of neighbor may be classed as counter-revolutionary.

  Eric Hoffer

  Eye, Doors, Humanity

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• The peoples of Yugoslavia do not want Fascism. They do not want a totalitarian regime, they do not want to become slaves of the German and Italian financial oligarchy as they never wanted to become reconciled to the semi-colonial dependence imposed on them by the so-called Western democracies after the first imperialist war.

  Josip Broz Tito

  War, Italian, Yugoslavia

  "Tito: A Biography". Book by Jasper Ridley, 1994.

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• It became clear to the whole world that a totalitarian regime could neither accuse nor transform itself: suicide was not in its nature, it could only kill others.

  Svetlana Alliluyeva

  Suicide, World, Regimes

  Svetlana Alliluyeva (1969). “Only One Year”

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• Liberals and international diplomats (a distinction without a difference) have notorious difficulty understanding how to deal with totalitarian regimes.

  Mona Charen

  Differences, Understanding, Diplomats

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