Tyranny Quotes - Page 31

• We all know that books burn, yet we have the greater knowledge that books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can put thought in a concentration camp forever. No man and no force can take from the world the books that embody man's eternal fight against tyranny of every kind.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Book, Fighting, Men

  "Message to the Booksellers of America" (1942)

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The practice of arbitrary imprisonments have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Practice, Democracy, Age

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.418, Coventry House Publishing

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Ye that dare oppose, not only tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth!

  Thomas Paine

  Tyrants, Democracy, Dare

  Thomas Paine (1854). “The Works of Thomas Paine: A Hero in the American Revolution. With an Account of His Life ...”, p.13

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• The combination of economic and political power in the same hands is a sure recipe for tyranny.

  Milton Friedman

  Hands, Political, Democracy

  Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman (1990). “Free to Choose: A Personal Statement”, p.21, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• Democracy is nothing but the Tyranny of Majorities, the most abominable tyranny of all, for it is not based on the authority of a religion, not upon the nobility of a race, not on the merits of talents and of riches. It merely rests upon numbers and hides behind the name of the people.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Numbers, Race, Names

  79 Copy quote

• Tyranny is usually tempered with assassination, and Democracy must be tempered with culture. In the absence of this, it turns into a representation of collective folly.

  John Stuart Mackenzie

  Democracy, Culture, Absence

  "An Introduction to Social Philosophy". Book by John Stuart Mackenzie (p. 383), 1895.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is a golden thread which runs through British history of the individual, standing firm against tyranny and then of the individual participating in his society

  Gordon Brown

  Running, Golden, Economics

  Gordon Brown (2006). “Moving Britain Forward: Selected Speeches, 1997-2006”, Bloomsbury Publishing

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• The concentrating of powers in the same hands is precisely the definition of despotic government. It will be no alleviation that these powers will be exercised by a plurality of hands, and not by a single one.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Hands, Definitions

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia II, Correspondence 1782-1786”, p.20, Cosimo, Inc.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• The possession of unlimited power will make a despot of almost any man. There is a possible Nero in the gentlest human creature that walks.

  Thomas Bailey Aldrich

  Power, Men, Nero

  Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1907). “The Writings of Thomas Bailey Aldrich”

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• Tyranny seldom announces itself...In fact, a tyranny may exist without an individual tyrant. A whole government, even a democratically elected one, may be tyrannical.

  Joseph Sobran

  Government, Tyrants, May

  5 Copy quote

• American tyranny has come gradually, like a slow rising river. Each of us does not realize the danger until the water comes to our door. Until then, it is merely someone elses problem and a problem that we fool ourselves into thinking won't reach us.

  Charley Reese

  Thinking, Doors, Rivers

  8 Copy quote

• The present representative of the Dedlocks is an excellent master.He supposes all his dependents to be utterly bereft of individual characters, intentions or opinions, and is persuaded that he was born to supersede the necessity of their having any.If he were to make a discovery to the contrary, he would be simply stunned - would never recover himself, most likely, except to gasp and die.

  Charles Dickens

  Character, Discovery, Would Be

  Charles Dickens (1853). “Bleak House”, p.59

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• By giving the government unlimited powers, the most arbitrary rule can be made legal; and in this way a democracy may set up the most complete despotism imaginable.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Government, Giving, Democracy

  67 Copy quote

• Beware lest in your anxiety to avoid war you obtain a master

  Demosthenes

  Peace, War, Anxiety

  12 Copy quote

• Can any reasonable man be well disposed toward a government which makes war and carnage the only means of supporting itself?

  Alexander Hamilton

  War, Mean, Men

  Alexander Hamilton, Morton J. Frisch (1985). “Selected writings and speeches of Alexander Hamilton”, Aei Pr

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Patriot Act followed 9-11 as smoothly as the suspension of the Weimar constitution after the Reichstag Fire Decree.

  Sr?a Trifkovic

  Fire, Constitution, Patriot

  5 Copy quote

• The most common characteristic of all police states is intimidation by surveillance. Citizens know they are being watched and overheard. Their mail is being examined. Their homes can be invaded.

  Vance Packard

  Home, Police, Citizens

  Anne Edwards, David G. McCullough, Vance Oakley Packard, Andrew Sinclair, Daphne Du Maurier (1978). “Vivien Leigh: a biography”

  28 Copy quote

  Show source

• The mission of the Gestapo expanded steadily as from 1933 onward, "political criminality" was given a much broader definition than ever before and more forms of dissent and criticism were gradually criminalized. The result was that more "laws" or law-like measures were put on the books than ever.

  Sheila Fitzpatrick

  Book, Law, Political

  37 Copy quote

• When is conduct a crime, and when is a crime not a crime? When "Somebody Up There" - a monarch, a dictator, a Pope, a legislator - so decrees.

  Jessica Mitford

  Government, Prison, Dictator

  Jessica Mitford (1973). “Kind and usual punishment: the prison business”, Not Avail

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A legislative act contrary to the Constitution is not law.

  John Marshall

  Government, Law, Constitution

  John Marshall (2005). “The Political and Economic Doctrines of John Marshall”, p.337, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

  53 Copy quote

  Show source

• A decision by the Fuhrer in the express form of a law or a decree may not be scrutinized by a judge. In addition, the judge is bound by any other decision of the Fuhrer.

  Adolf Hitler

  Law, Judging, Decision

  183 Copy quote

• Peace without justice is tyranny

  William Allen White

  Peace, Editors, Justice

  William Allen White (1937). “Forty Years on Main Street”

  51 Copy quote

  Show source

• The object of any tyrant would be to overthrow or diminish trial by jury, for it is the lamp that shows that freedom lives.

  Patrick Devlin, Baron Devlin

  Tyrants, Would Be, Lamps

  10 Copy quote

• I know not why any one but a school boy in his declamation would whine over the Commonwealth of Rome, which grew great only by the misery of the rest of mankind. The Romans, like others, as soon as they were rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption sold the lives and freedoms of themselves and of one another.

  Samuel Johnson

  School, Boys, Rome

  Samuel Johnson (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.”, p.473

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• Let us not be defeated by the tyranny of the world financial markets that threaten peace and democracy everywhere.

  Stephane Hessel

  Democracy, World, Financial

  "A French Manifesto to Unite Occupy Wall Street" by William D. Cohan, www.sfgate.com. November 30, 2011.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source