Tyranny Quotes - Page 18

• As usurpation is the exercise of power which another has a right to, so tyranny is the exercise of power beyond right, which nobody can have a right to.

  John Locke

  Exercise, Government, Usurpation

  John Locke (2015). “The Second Treatise of Civil Government”, p.141, Broadview Press

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• This focus on money and power may do wonders in the marketplace, but it creates a tremendous crisis in our society. People who have spent all day learning how to sell themselves and to manipulate others are in no position to form lasting friendships or intimate relationships... Many Americans hunger for a different kind of society - one based on principles of caring, ethical and spiritual sensitivity, and communal solidarity. Their need for meaning is just as intense as their need for economic security.

  Michael Lerner

  Spiritual, Caring, Tyrants

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• The fundamental article of my political creed is that despotism, or limited sovereignty, or absolute power is the same [whether] in a majority of a popular assembly; an aristocratic council; or oligarchical junto and a single emperor - equally arbitrary, cruel, bloody and in every respect diabolical.

  John Adams

  Political, Arbitrary, Fundamentals

  John Adams' Letter to Thomas Jefferson, founders.archives.gov. November 13, 1815.

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• To prevent inquiry is amongst the worst of evils.

  Thomas Holcroft

  Evil, Inquiry, Worst

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• Power corrupts. Absolute power is kind of neat.

  John Lehman

  Power, Confusion, Political

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• To subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils and to assert the independence of my country- these were my objectives. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissensions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter - these were my means.

  Wolfe Tone

  Country, Memories, Mean

  Sean Cronin, Richard Roche, Theobald Wolfe Tone (1973). “Freedom the Wolfe Tone way”

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• If you know only one language, you're a prisoner, stuck in the tyranny of that one language.

  Andrew Cohen

  Political, Language, Stuck

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• As soon as government management begins it upsets the natural equilibrium of industrial relations, and each interference only requires further bureaucratic control until the end is the tyranny of the totalitarian state.

  Adam Smith

  Government, Upset, Management

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• Wherever Law ends, Tyranny begins.

  John Locke

  Law, Ends, Freedom And Liberty

  Second Treatise of Civil Government ch. 18, sec. 202 (1690)

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• Good intentions will always be pleaded, for every assumption of power; but they cannot justify it ... It is hardly too strong to say, that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intention, real or pretended.

  Daniel Webster

  Strong, Real, Gun

  Daniel Webster (1854). “The speeches of Daniel Webster and his master-pieces”, p.282

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• Tis a Mistake to think this Fault [tyranny] is proper only to Monarchies; other Forms of Government are liable to it, as well as that. For where-ever the Power that is put in any hands for the Government of the People, and the Preservation of their Properties, is applied to other ends, and made use of to impoverish, harass, or subdue them to the Arbitrary and Irregular Commands of those that have it: There it presently becomes Tyranny, whether those that thus use it are one or many.

  John Locke

  Mistake, Thinking, Hands

  John Locke, Peter Laslett (1988). “Locke: Two Treatises of Government Student Edition”, p.400, Cambridge University Press

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• If the innocent honest Man must quietly quit all he has for Peace sake, to him who will lay violent hands upon it, I desire it may be considered what kind of Peace there will be in the World, which consists only in Violence and Rapine; and which is to be maintained only for the benefit of Robbers and Oppressors.

  John Locke

  Men, Hands, Desire

  John Locke (1821). “Two treatises of government”, p.385

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• What want these outlaws conquerors should have but history's purchased page to call them great?

  Lord Byron

  Should Have, Tyrants, Want

  Lord Byron (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Lord Byron (Illustrated)”, p.243, Delphi Classics

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• Think'st thou there is no tyranny but that Of blood and chains? The despotism of vice-- The weakness and the wickedness of luxury-- The negligence--the apathy--the evils Of sensual sloth--produces ten thousand tyrants, Whose delegated cruelty surpasses The worst acts of one energetic master, However harsh and hard in his own bearing.

  Lord Byron

  Thinking, Tyrants, Luxury

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• Tyranny Is far the worst of treasons. Dost thou deem None rebels except subjects? The prince who Neglects or violates his trust is more A brigand than the robber-chief.

  Lord Byron

  Tyrants, Rebel, Neglect

  Lord Byron (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Lord Byron (Illustrated)”, p.1436, Delphi Classics

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• Memory is a political act. Forgetfulness is the handmaiden of tyranny.

  James Carroll

  Memories, Political, Forgetfulness

  James Carroll (2013). “Crusade: Chronicles of an Unjust War”, p.13, Metropolitan Books

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• Tacitus appears to have been as great an enthusiast as Petrarch for the revival of the republic and universal empire. He has exerted the vengeance of history upon the emperors, but has veiled the conspiracies against them, and the incorrigible corruption of the people which probably provoked their most atrocious cruelties. Tyranny can scarcely be practised upon a virtuous and wise people.

  John Adams

  Wise, People, Republic

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1851). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.422

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• Whether you have an abortion, what you put in your own body, with whom you have sex - these are not affairs of the state. A government does not exist to control the citizens. When it does, it is a tyranny, and must be fought. The tree of liberty, Jefferson warned us, must be refreshed with the blood of tyrants and patriots.

  Gore Vidal

  Sex, Government, Blood

  Interview with David Sheff, www.davidsheff.com. December 1987.

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• Monetary freedom (gold: sound money), like all other economic freedoms, clears the way for energy, intellect and virtue... Political control weakens individual self-reliance and energy, causes want and poverty and, in the end, breeds tyranny and oppression.

  Hans F. Sennholz

  Self, Political, Gold

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• To confound the tyranny of man there should exist for a century a third sex, both male and female, and stronger than men. This new sex would prove with the lash that men as well as women are made for its pleasure; and then you would hear men protesting against the tyranny of the hermaphrodite sex and admitting that strength should not be the sole rule of right. Just why do they refuse to grant the women the independence which they would demand from the third sex?

  Charles Fourier

  Sex, Men, Independence

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• More pernicious than the power of a dictator is that of a class; the most terrible - the tyranny of a majority.

  Emma Goldman

  Class, Majority, Dictator

  Emma Goldman (1998). “Red Emma Speaks: An Emma Goldman Reader”

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• Masculine republics give way to feminine democracies, and feminine democracies give way to tyranny.

  Aristotle

  Giving, Democracy, Republic

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• We do not war with races primarily as such. Tyranny is our foe. Whatever trapping or disguise it wears, whatever language it speaks, be it external or internal, we must for ever be on our guard, ever mobilized, ever vigilant, always ready to spring at its throat. In all this we march together. Not only do we march and strive shoulder to shoulder at this moment, under the fire of the enemy on the fields of war or in the air, but also in those realms of thought which are consecrated to the rights and the dignity of man.

  Winston Churchill

  Spring, War, Men

  Winston Churchill, Robert Rhodes James (1980). “Churchill speaks: Winston S. Churchill in peace and war : collected speeches, 1897-1963”, Atheneum

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• My films can be considered political action against the tyranny of good taste.

  John Waters

  Political, Taste, Action

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• Our flag is a proud flag, and it stands for liberty and civilization. Where it has once floated, there must be no return to tyranny.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Civilization, Liberty, Flags

  Theodore Roosevelt (1926). “The Works of Theodore Roosevelt”

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