Tyrants Quotes - Page 22

• Some of mankind's most terrible misdeeds have been committed under the spell of certain magic words or phrases.

  James Bryant Conant

  Political, Magic, Phrases

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• The law is an expression of God 's holy will and as such must be honored and loved," said the preacher piously. "Rubbish," said the Master. "The law is a necessary evil and as such must be cut down to the barest minimum. Show me a lover of the law and I will show you a muttonheaded tyrant .

  Anthony de Mello

  Cutting, Expression, Law

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• All my plans in private life; all my pursuits; all my designs, wishes, and thoughts, have this one great object in view: the overthrow of the ruffian Boroughmongers. If I write grammars; if I write on agriculture; if I sow, plant, or deal in seeds; whatever I do has first in view the destruction of those infamous tyrants.

  William Cobbett

  Writing, Views, Agriculture

  Political Register, August 14, 1819.

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• Reverence is an ennobling sentiment; it is felt to be degrading only by the vulgar mind, which would escape the sense of its own littleness by elevating itself into an antagonist of what is above it. He that has no pleasure in looking up is not fit so much as to look down. Of such minds are mannerists in Art; in the world, tyrants of all sorts.

  Washington Allston

  Art, Mind, World

  Washington Allston, Richard Henry Dana (1850). “Lectures on Art, and Poems”, p.168, Scholarly Pub Office Univ of

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• Law is often the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Law, Inalienable Rights, Equal Rights

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.224, Cambridge University Press

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• 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

  Would Be, Lamps, Trials

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• A wicked tyrant is better than a wicked war.

  Martin Luther

  War, Wicked

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• This excessive licence, which the anarchists think is the only true freedom, provides the stock, as it were, from which a tyrant grows.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Thinking, Democracy, Anarchist

  Marcus Tullius Cicero, Niall Rudd (2008). “The Republic and The Laws”, p.31, Oxford University Press

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• Just wage a total war against these tyrants; I think we will do very well and our children will sing great songs about us years from now.

  Michael A. Ledeen

  Song, Children, War

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• Power is a dangerous thing. Be careful that you don't abuse it or let it make a tyrant of you.

  Louisa May Alcott

  Power, Abuse, Dangerous

  Louisa May Alcott (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Louisa May Alcott (Illustrated)”, p.2377, Delphi Classics

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• The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good.
  Pity is the virtue of the law, and none but tyrants use it cruelly.

  William Shakespeare

  Memorable, Hands, Law

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• Suspense: the only literary tool that has any effect upon tyrants and savages.

  E. M. Forster

  Writing, Savages, Suspense

  E. M. Forster (2010). “Aspects of the Novel”, p.46, RosettaBooks

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

  Thomas Paine

  Democracy, Dare, Tyranny

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

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• Democracies have been, and governments called, free; but the spirit of independence and the consciousness of unalienable rights, were never before transfused into the minds of a whole people....The feeling of equality which they proudly cherish does not proceed from an ignorance of their station, but from the knowledge of their rights; and it is this knowledge which will render it so exceedingly difficult for any tyrant ever to triumph over the liberties of our country.

  Sarah Josepha Hale

  Country, Women, Ignorance

  Sarah Josepha Buell Hale (1828). “Ladies' Magazine”, p.443

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• Democracy was the right of the people to choose their own tyrant.

  James Madison

  People, Democracy

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• The will of the nation is one of those phrases most widely abused by schemers and tyrants of all ages.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Democracy, Age, Phrases

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• It is indeed probable that more harm and misery have been caused by men determined to use coercion to stamp out a moral evil than by men intent on doing evil.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Men, Thinking, Evil

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek. Part II: "Freedom and the Law". Chapter 9: "Coercion and the State", 1960.

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• While we are under the tyranny of Priests, it will ever be their interest, to invalidate the law of nature and reason, in order to establish systems incompatible therewith.

  Ethan Allen

  Order, Law, Religion

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• Insane!... Ask the tyrant who is his most dangerous foe, the sane man or the insane?

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Insane, Dangerous

  Henry David Thoreau (1992). “The Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.58, Rowman & Littlefield

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• The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny.

  David Hume

  Peace, War, Philosophical

  Adam Ferguson, David Hume, David R. Raynor (1982). “Sister Peg: A Pamphlet Hitherto Unknown by David Hume”, p.19, Cambridge University Press

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• The night is darkening round me,
  The wild winds coldly blow;
  But a tyrant spell has bound me
  And I cannot, cannot go.
  The giant trees are bending
  Their bare boughs weighed with snow;
  The storm is fast descending,
  And yet I cannot go.
  Clouds beyond clouds above me,
  Wastes beyond wastes below;
  But nothing drear can move me;
  I will not, cannot go.

  Emily Bronte

  Moving, Night, Blow

  "The Night is Darkening Round Me". Poem by Emily Bronte, www.poetryfoundation.org. November 1837.

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• Everything necessary to understand my grandfather lies between two stories: the story of the tiger’s wife, and the story of the deathless man. These stories run like secret rivers through all the other stories of his life – of my grandfather’s days in the army; his great love for my grandmother; the years he spent as a surgeon and a tyrant of the University. One, which I learned after his death, is the story of how my grandfather became a man; the other, which he told to me, is of how he became a child again.

  Tea Obreht

  Running, Children, Lying

  Tea Obreht (2011). “The Tiger's Wife”, p.15, Hachette UK

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• A dagger is the noble weapon of Brutus. Everyone understands that tyrants fall to daggers. A bomb is a sordid modern device with many complex working parts. Only engineers understand bombs

  Bruce Sterling

  Fall, Noble, Bombs

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• But you can't kill me, Lord Tyrant. I represent that one thing you've never been able to kill, no matter how hard you try. I am hope.

  Brandon Sanderson

  Trying, Matter, Able

  Brandon Sanderson (2011). “Mistborn Trilogy”, p.561, Macmillan

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• A hurt body and mind aren't just like a dictatorship; they are a dictatorship. There is no tyrant as merciless as pain, no despot so cruel as confusion.

  Stephen King

  Hurt, Pain, Confusion

  Stephen King (2008). “Duma Key: A Novel”, p.52, Simon and Schuster

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