Tyrants Quotes - Page 27

• Hitler had a lot of Jews high up in the hierarchy of the Third Reich. Color does not necessarily denote quality, content or value. If a black is a tyrant, he is first and foremost a tyrant, then he incidentally is black. Bush is a tyrant and if he gathers around him black tyrants, they all have to be treated as they are being treated.

  Harry Belafonte

  Color, Black, Quality

  Interview with Ed Gordon, www.npr.org. August 11, 2005.

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• Its authors meant it to be... a stumbling block to those who in after times might seek to turn a free people back into the hateful paths of despotism. They knew the proneness of prosperity to breed tyrants, and they meant when such should re-appear in this fair land and commence their vocation they should find left for them at least one hard nut to crack.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Block, Nuts, Land

  Abraham Lincoln (2008). “Speeches and Letters of Abraham Lincoln(1832-1865) (EasyRead Super Large 20pt Edition)”, p.139, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Men, Careers, Numbers

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.10, Coventry House Publishing

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• Would they not fear that citizens not less tenacious than conscious of their rights would flock from the remotest extremes of their respective states to the places of election, to overthrow their tyrants, and to substitute men who would be disposed to avenge the violated majesty of the people?

  Alexander Hamilton

  Men, Rights, People

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2003). “The Federalist: With Letters of Brutus”, p.296, Cambridge University Press

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• It was the hard work of our people, the freedom they enjoyed and their faith in God that built this country and made it the envy of the world. In all of our great cities and towns evidence of the faith of our people is found: houses of worship of every denomination are among the oldest structures. While never willing to bow to a tyrant, our forefathers were always willing to get to their knees before God. When catastrophe threatened, they turned to God for deliverance. When the harvest was bountiful the first thought was thanksgiving to God.

  Ronald Reagan

  God, Country, Hard Work

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• O sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if, to punish tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the people! Your arms, wherewith you could defend yourselves, are gone; and you have no longer an aristocratical, no longer a democratical spirit. Did you ever read of any revolution in a nation, brought about by the punishment of those in power, inflicted by those who had no power at all?

  Patrick Henry

  Should Have, Punishment, People

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• The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means.

  Georges Bernanos

  Mean, Deception, Alive

  Georges Bernanos (1955). “Last essays”

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• A tyrant does not remain in the world; But the curse on him abides forever!

  Bill Vaughan

  Forever, Doe, World

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• Idealism is the despot of thought, just as politics is the despot of will.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Idealism And Realism, Ideals, Despots

  Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin (1953). “The Political Philosophy of Bakunin: Scientific Anarchism”, Free Pr

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• When we make college more affordable, we make the American dream more achievable.

  William J. Clinton

  Dream, Knowledge, College

  Clinton, William J. (2000). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 2000-2001”, p.89, Best Books on

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• Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could.

  Abigail Adams

  Wedding, Husband, Women

  Letter to John Adams, 31 Mar. 1776 See Defoe 2

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• The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Peace, Powerful, War

  Ambrose Bierce (1912). “The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce ...: Antepenultimata”

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• People might say I'm difficult, but did you ever hear anyone describe a label as 'difficult'? By nature, artists should challenge. When they call you difficult, it is a reflection of the imbalance of power.

  Michelle Shocked

  Artist, Reflection, People

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• What began the change was the very writing itself. Let no one lightly set about such a work. Memory, once waked, will play the tyrant.

  C. S. Lewis

  Memories, Writing, Play

  C. S. Lewis (1980). “Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold”, p.259, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• I consider myself to be a man of principle. But, what man does not? Even the cutthroat, I have noticed, considers his actions "moral" after a fashion. Perhaps another person, reading of my life, would name me a religious tyrant. He could call me arrogant. What is to make that man's opinion any less valid than my own? I guess it all comes down to one fact: In the end, I'm the one with the armies.

  Brandon Sanderson

  Religious, Fashion, Reading

  Brandon Sanderson (2011). “Mistborn Trilogy”, p.27, Macmillan

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• Speak to me, Jacob, do not play the tyrant. Speak to me.

  Maria McCann

  Play, Speak, Jacob

  Maria McCann (2001). “As meat loves salt”, HarperCollins

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• They've got something they do it with, I think it's called a mocracy, and it means everyone in the whole country can say who the new Tyrant is. One man ... one vet. ... Everyone has ... the vet. Except for women, of course. And children. And criminals. And slaves. And stupid people. And people of foreign extraction. And people disapproved of for, er, various reasons. And lots of other people. But everyone apart from them. It's a very enlightened civilization.

  Terry Pratchett

  Country, Children, Stupid

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• Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Confidence, Anxiety, Political

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.8, Xist Publishing

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• See how he cowers and sneaks, how vaguely all the day he fears, not being immortal nor divine, but the slave and prisoner of his own opinion of himself, a fame won by his own deeds. Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Fate, Men, Thinking

  Henry David Thoreau (2004). “Walden: 150th Anniversary Illustrated Edition of the American Classic”, p.5, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• A genius doesn't adjust his treatment of a theme to a tyrant's taste

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Genius, Taste, Theme

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (2005). “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich: A Novel”, p.77, Macmillan

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• There's no tyrant like a brain.

  Louis-Ferdinand Celine

  Brain

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• Scientific societies are as yet in their infancy. It is to be expected that advances in physiology and psychology will give governments much more control over individual mentality than they now have even in totalitarian countries. Fitche laid it down that education should aim at destroying free will, so that, after pupils have left school, they shall be incapable, throughout the rest of their lives, of thinking or acting otherwise than as their schoolmasters would have wished.

  Bertrand Russell

  Country, School, Thinking

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• Better that right counsels be known to enemies than that the evil secrets of tyrants should be concealed from the citizens. They who can treat secretly of the affairs of a nation have it absolutely under their authority; and as they plot against the enemy in time of war, so do they against the citizens in time of peace.

  Baruch Spinoza

  War, Evil, Secret

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• A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.

  Aldous Huxley

  Powerful, Army, Brave New World

  Aldous Huxley (1950). “The Collected Works of Aldous Huxley: Brave new world”

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• Chivalry!---why, maiden, she is the nurse of pure and high affection---the stay of the oppressed, the redresser of grievances, the curb of the power of the tyrant ---Nobility were but an empty name without her, and liberty finds the best protection in her lance and her sword.

  Walter Scott

  Names, Nurse, Liberty

  Walter Scott (2001). “Ivanhoe”, p.109, Classic Books Company

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