Tyrants Quotes - Page 5

• Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

  C. S. Lewis

  Peace, War, Government

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.45, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Ronald Reagan said that he sought a "Star Wars" defense only in order to share the technology with the tyrants of the U.S.S.R.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Stars, War, Technology

  "Not Even a Hedgehog" by Christopher Hitchens, www.slate.com. June 7, 2004.

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• When you fight a war against a tyrant, who do you kill? You kill the victims of the tyrant.

  Howard Zinn

  War, Fighting, Victim

  Howard Zinn (2012). “Howard Zinn Speaks: Collected Speeches, 1963-2009”, p.299, Haymarket Books

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• Tyranny and anarchy are never far apart.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Anarchy, Tyranny

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• Secrecy is the freedom tyrants dream of.

  Bill Moyers

  Dream, Freedom, Secrecy

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• Treachery is noble when aimed at tyranny.

  Pierre Corneille

  Noble, Tyranny, Treachery

  "Character: Émilie". "Cinna" by Pierre Corneille, act III, scene iv, 1641.

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• Common tyrants, and public oppressors, are not intitled to obedience from their subjects, by virtue of any thing here laid down by the inspired apostle.

  Jonathan Mayhew

  Common, Inspired, Virtue

  Jonathan Mayhew (1750). “A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-resistance to the Higher Powers: With Some Reflections on the Resistance Made to King Charles I, and on the Anniversary of His Death: in which the Mysterious Doctrine of the Princes' Saintship and Martyrdom is Unriddled: the Substance of which was Delivered in a Sermon Preached in the West Meeting-house in Boston the Lord's-day After the 30th of January, 1749/50...”, p.29

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• If we must have a tyrant, let him at least be a gentleman who has been bred to the business, and let us fall by the axe and not by the butcher's cleaver.

  Lord Byron

  Fall, Gentleman, Literature

  Lord Byron (1990). “The Sayings of Lord Byron”, p.26, Gerald Duckworth & Co

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• The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position.

  George Washington

  Real, Heart, Government

  George Washington, Andrew Jackson (1862). “Washington's Farewell Address: The Proclamation of Jackson Against Nullification, and the Declaration of Independence”, p.8

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• The slaves of today will become the tyrants of tomorrow--the proletariat overthrows the hegemon to become the hegemon itself, only to be eventually overthrown by a proto-hegemon that will in turn lose its position. It is this dizzying cycle that keeps humanity chasing the tail it lost millennia ago

  Miguel Syjuco

  Humanity, Tails, Today

  Miguel Syjuco (2010). “Ilustrado: A Novel”, p.70, Macmillan

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• Only a humorless tyrant could want a perpetual chanting of praises that, one has no choice but to assume, would be the innate virtues and splendors furnished him by his creator, infinite regression, drowned in praise!

  Christopher Hitchens

  Choices, Religion, Want

  Christopher Hitchens (2009). “Letters to a Young Contrarian”, p.64, Basic Books

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• A democracy which makes or even effectively prepares for modern, scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic. No country can be really well prepared for modern war unless it is governed by a tyrant, at the head of a highly trained and perfectly obedient bureaucracy.

  Aldous Huxley

  Country, War, Democracy

  Aldous Huxley (1937). “Ends and Means: An Inquiry Into the Nature of Ideals and Into the Methods Employed for Their Realization”, p.71, Transaction Publishers

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• You work your butt off and somebody says you can't have your record played because it offends them. Tyrants are made of such stuff.

  Richard Pryor

  Records, Stuff, Made

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• A modern democracy is a tyranny whose borders are undefined; one discovers how far one can go only by traveling in a straight line until one is stopped.

  Norman Mailer

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Democracy

  1963 The Presidential Papers, preface.

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• We stand for the maintenance of private property... We shall protect free enterprise as the most expedient, or rather the sole possible economic order.

  Adolf Hitler

  Order, Maintenance, Economic

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• The "Axis of Evil" was - and is - very real, as the tyrants of Iran, Iraq, and North Korea knew full well.

  Michael A. Ledeen

  Real, Axes, Iran

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• Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart; nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants.

  Edmund Burke

  Heart, Mind, Watches

  Edmund Burke (1963). “Edmund Burke: Selected Writings and Speeches”, p.581, Transaction Publishers

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• War kills men, and men deplore the loss; but war also crushes bad principles and tyrants, and so saves societies.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Crush, War, Loss

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• The tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is free.

  George W. Bush

  Iraq, Fallen

  Announces End of Major Combat Operations in Iraq, delivered 1 May 2003 from the USS Abraham Lincoln, off the coast of San Diego, CA

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• It's the tyranny of an oligarchy that I'm concerned about.

  Pat Robertson

  Oligarchy, Tyranny, Concerned

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• International law? I better call my lawyer; he didn't bring that up to me.

  George W. Bush

  Law, Tyranny, International

  George W. Bush Discusses Year-End Accomplishments in Cabinet Meeting, georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov. December 11, 2003.

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• Voldemort himself created his worst enemy, just as tyrants everywhere do! Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress? All of them realize that, one day, amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one who rises against them and strikes back!

  J. K. Rowling

  Worst Enemy, Ideas, People

  "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". Book by J. K. Rowling, July 16, 2005.

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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.

  Patrick Henry

  Should Have, People, Second Amendment

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, Samuel Bryan, Patrick Henry (2017). “The Federalist Papers & Anti-Federalist Papers: Complete Edition of the Pivotal Constitution Debate: Including Articles of Confederation (1777), Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights & Other Amendments – All With Founding Fathers’ Arguments & Decisions about the Constitution”, p.77, Madison & Adams Press

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• Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom. No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.

  Patrick Henry

  Freedom, 4th Of July, Blessing

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• The strongest passions and most dangerous weaknesses of the human breast; ambition, avarice, vanity, the honorable or venal love of fame, are all in conspiracy against the desire and duty of peace.

  James Madison

  Peace, War, Passion

  "The Cost of America's Secret Wars, Then and Now" by Charles P. Pierce, www.esquire.com. December 6, 2011.

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