Tyrants Quotes - Page 21

• I have no desire to go in for tyranny or to play the part of King Charles. I hate tyranny in any field of human activity.

  Charles Edison

  Kings, Hate, Play

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• The preservation of a free government requires not merely that the metes and bounds which separate each department of power be invariably maintained; but more especially that neither of them be suffered to overleap the great Barrier which defends the rights of the people. The Rulers who are guilty of such an encroachment, exceed the commission from which they derive their authority and are Tyrants. The people who submit to it are governed by laws made neither by themselves nor by an authority derived from them, and are slaves.

  James Madison

  Rights, Government, Law

  James Madison (1867). “1769-1793”, p.163

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• That slow poison [slavery] is daily contaminating the minds and morals of our people. Every gentlemen here is born a petty tyrant, practiced in acts of despotism and cruelty.

  George Mason

  People, Gentleman, Mind

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• When dictators and tyrants seek to destroy the freedoms of men, their first target is the legal profession and through it the rule of law.

  Leon Jaworski

  Men, Law, Target

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• Ultimately, freedom and democracy are stronger than fear and tyranny.

  Gijs de Vries

  Democracy, Stronger, Tyranny

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• Freedom is never easily won, but once established, freedom lasts, spreads and chokes out tyranny.

  Trent Lott

  Lasts, Choke, Tyranny

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• I often wish... that I could rid the world of the tyranny of facts. What are facts but compromises? A fact merely marks the point where we have agreed to let investigation cease.

  Bliss Carman

  Wish, World, Facts

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• To add to our misery and despair, a bloated aristocracy has sent to China - the greatest and oldest despotism in the world - for a cheap working slave.

  Denis Kearney

  Despair, World, Aristocracy

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• You may talk of the tyranny of Nero and Tiberius; but the real tyranny is the tyranny of your next-door neighbor.

  Walter Bagehot

  Real, Doors, Nero

  "The Character of Sir Robert Peel" (1856)

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• Few governments in the world, for example, praise human rights more ardently than does the government of France, and few have a worse record of supporting tyrants and killers.

  Richard Perle

  Rights, Government, Example

  David Frum, Richard Perle (2003). “An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror”, p.233, Random House

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• In a despotic government, the only principle by which the tyrant who is to move the whole machine means to regulate and manage the people is fear, by the servile dread of his power. But a free government, which of all others is far the most preferable, cannot be supported without virtue.

  Samuel Williams

  Moving, Mean, Government

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• Babylon violated diminishes Alexander; Rome enslaved diminishes Caesar; massacred Jerusalem diminishes Titus. Tyranny follows the tyrant. Woe to the man who leaves behind a shadow that bears his form.

  Victor Hugo

  Men, Rome, Shadow

  Victor Hugo, Charles Edwin Wilbour (1987). “Les misérables”, Dutton Adult

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• At the very time that philosophers of the most enterprising benevolence were founding in Greece those institutions which have rendered it the wonder and luminary of the world, am I required to believe that the weak and wicked king of an obscure and barbarous nation, a murderer, a traitor and a tyrant, was the man after God's own heart?

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Atheist, Kings, Believe

  Percy Bysshe Shelley, Roger Ingpen, Walter Edwin Peck (1965). “Complete Works: Newly Edited by Roger Ingpen and Walter E. Peck”

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• The King has degenerated into a tyrant and forfeits all rights to his subjects' obedience.

  Patrick Henry

  Kings, Rights, Revolution

  Patrick Henry (2007). “Patrick Henry in his speeches and writings and in the words of his contemporaries”, Warwick House Publishing

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• The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them. ... Love your neighbor as yourself and your country more than yourself. ... The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave. ... I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. ... The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Love You, Men

  Letter to William Stephens Smith, 13 Nov. 1787

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• Since men do not really respect anything unless it was established long ago and has developed slowly over time, those who want tokeep on living after their death must take worry not only about their future generations but even more about their past: that is why tyrants of all kinds (including tyrannical artists and politicians) like to do violence to history, so that it will appear as a preparation and stepladder to themselves.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Artist, Past, Men

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• The people cannot be all, and always well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Patriotic, People, Patriotism

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, 2: Correspondence and Private Papers”, p.268

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• Neither a life of anarchy nor a life under a despot should you praise. To all that lies in the middle has a god given excellence.

  Aeschylus

  Lying, Excellence, Anarchy

  "Oresteia".

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• Tyrants and dictators will accept no other gods before them. They require disobedience to the First Commandment. They seek absolute control and are threatened by faith in God. They fear only the power they cannot possess - the power of truth. So they resent the living example of the devout, especially the devotion of a unique people chosen by God.

  George W. Bush

  Humor, Unique, People

  "Bush Speaks At Holocaust Memorial Event". www.cnn.com. April 19, 2001.

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• [Slave] trade ... is the most shocking violation of the law of nature, has a direct tendency to diminish ... liberty, and makes every dealer in it a tyrant, from the director of an African company to the petty chapman [peddler].... It is a clear truth, that those who every day barter away other men's liberty will soon care little for their own.

  James Otis

  Men, Law, Liberty

  "Argument Against the Writs of Assistance". "Argument Against the Writs of Assistance" by James Otis Jr., 1761.

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• Every collectivist revolution rides in on a Trojan horse of "emergency". It was the tactic of Lenin, Hitler, and Mussolini. In the collectivist sweep over a dozen minor countries of Europe, it was the cry of men striving to get on horseback. And "emergency" became the justification of the subsequent steps. This technique of creating emergency is the greatest achievement that demagoguery attains.

  Herbert Hoover

  Country, Horse, Men

  Herbert Hoover (1952). “Memoirs: The great depression, 1929-1941”

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• The moment a man claims a right to control the will of a fellow being by physical force, he is at heart a slaveholder.

  Henry Clarke Wright

  Heart, Men, Claims

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• No one is an unjust villain in his own mind. Even - perhaps even especially those who are the worst of us. Some of the cruelest tyrants in history were motivated by noble ideals, or made choices they would call "hard but necessary" for the good of their nation. We're all the hero of our own story.

  Jim Butcher

  Hero, Choices, Mind

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• [It is a basic principle of a tyrant] to unarm his people of weapons, money and all means whereby they resist his power.

  Walter Raleigh

  Mean, People, Principles

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• The desire for liberty has also made itself felt as struggle against domestic tyranny or arbitrary rule.

  Emily Greene Balch

  Struggle, Desire, Liberty

  Emily Greene Balch (1972). “Beyond Nationalism: The Social Thought of Emily Greene Balch”, New York : Twayne Publishers

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