quotations about tyrants and tyranny
So true is the saying of the great philosopher, the oracle of ancient wisdom, that if the minds of tyrants were laid open to our view, we should see them gnashed and mangled with the whips and stings of horror and remorse. By blows and stripes the flesh is made to quiver; and in like manner, cruelty and inordinate passions, malice and evil deeds, become internal executioners, and with increasing torture and lacerate to the heart.
TACITUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
I knew him tyrannous, and tyrants' fears
Decrease not, but grow faster than the years.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
The difference between democracy and tyranny is the legislative arm of government.
BUKOLA SARAKI
"This is what Senate President told us", Pulse, May 11, 2017
Dictatorships foster oppression, dictatorships foster servitude, dictatorships foster cruelty; more abominable is the fact that they foster idiocy.
JORGE LUIS BORGES
Statement to the Argentine Society of Letters, c. 1946
Despotic governments do not recognize the precious human component of the state, seeing its citizens only as a faceless, mindless -- and helpless -- mass to be manipulated at will. It is as though people were incidental to a nation rather than its very life-blood.
AUNG SAN SUU KYI
In Quest of Democracy
Tyranny
Is far the worst of treasons. Dost thou deem
None rebels except subjects? The prince who
Neglects or violates his trust is more
A brigand than the robber-chief.
LORD BYRON
The Two Foscari
'Tis time to fear, when tyrants seem to kiss.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Whether the tyranny is administered by a government bureaucracy or a private corporation does not matter a whole lot. We are staring down the barrel of an Orwellian hell, and Facebook's behavior is actualizing that horrifying reality before our eyes.
SHANE TREJO
"Facebook As Big Brother: The Liberty Conservative Gets Censored By Thought Police", The Liberty Conservative, April 23, 2017
History shows that tyranny -- the quest for power -- can appear suddenly and from many directions, but it can be controlled if citizens are alert.
ALLAN POWELL
"Lessons on tyranny", Herald Mail Media, April 27, 2017
Men are still men. The despot's wickedness
Comes of ill teaching, and of power's excess--
Comes of the purple he from childhood wears,
Slaves would be tyrants if the chance were theirs.
VICTOR HUGO
The Vanished City
The tyrant now
Trusts not to men: nightly within his chamber
The watch-dog guards his couch, the only friend
He now dare trust.
JOANNA BAILLIE
Ethwald
Tyranny is like the electric wiring in an old house. A tyrant dies, the new tyrant takes possession, and all he has to do is drop the switch.
JOHN LE CARRÉ
Absolute Friends
Sad that the shadow of the hand of tyranny is so prevalent in America that any little escape for individuals back into the arms of Freedom is euphemistically characterized as Government's using a "light touch", as though She were a kept mother that "needed" a good beating from time to time or as though the Government's proper role were to firmly and constantly manhandle the citizens who rightly seek Her protection.
ANONYMOUS
IP Watchdog, May 3, 2017
When you fight a war against a tyrant, who do you kill? You kill the victims of the tyrant.
HOWARD ZINN
Howard Zinn Speaks: Collected Speeches, 1963-2009
Let a tyrant die that people may live.
JOHN PYM
attributed, Day's Collacon
Kings will be tyrants from policy when subjects are rebels from principle.
EDMUND BURKE
Reflections on the Revolution in France
Tyranny over a man is not tyranny: it is rebellion, for man is royal.
G. K. CHESTERTON
"Charles Dickens"
Each instalment of tyranny will likely engage a different principle of the rule of law. On one occasion, it may be met by a resort to the principle that the law may not have retrospective effect; on another that reliance will be placed on prohibition against unequal treatment; and, in yet another ... the right to the freedom of expression. Each of these, however, is part of the broader principle that the rule of law is the barrier the law sets against tyranny.
REX VAN SCHALKWYK
"The Hate Speech Bill: another instalment in the march towards tyranny", Business Day, April 27, 2017
The experience of the 21st century, as well as the experience of the 1930s, teaches that it takes about a year to engineer a regime change. To what, exactly? We cannot deduce, from the Trump administration's destructive chaos and ideological incoherence, what the post-democratic American regime would be. We can be sure, however, that we would miss being free. The prospect of children and grandchildren growing up under tyranny is terrifyingly real. History can remind us of the fragile fundaments of our own democracy. But what follows now is up to us.
TIMOTHY SNYDER
"Donald Trump and the New Dawn of Tyranny", Time, May 3, 2017
Fear not the tyrant; fear the tyrant's wake.
TOM HEEHLER
The Well-Spoken Thesaurus