quotations about tyrants and tyranny
Tyranny, it must be remembered, does not arrive all at once -- it arrives in instalments, and it must be fought off in instalments.
REX VAN SCHALKWYK
"The Hate Speech Bill: another instalment in the march towards tyranny", Business Day, April 27, 2017
Between a tyrant and a prince there is this single or chief difference, that the latter obeys the law and rules the people by its dictates, accounting himself as but their servant.
JOHN OF SALISBURY
Policraticus
O, it is excellent
To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Measure for Measure
Tyrant, step from the throne, and give place to thy master.
PIERRE CORNEILLE
Heraclius
It has been said that terror is the principle of despotic government. Does your government therefore resemble despotism? Yes, as the sword that gleams in the hands of the heroes of liberty resembles that with which the henchmen of tyranny are armed. Let the despot govern by terror his brutalized subjects; he is right, as a despot. Subdue by terror the enemies of liberty, and you will be right, as founders of the Republic. The government of the revolution is liberty's despotism against tyranny.
MAXIMILLIEN ROBESPIERRE
Virtue and Terror
Nature has left this tincture in the blood,
That all men would be tyrants if they could.
DANIEL DEFOE
The Kentish Petition
If I am to be hedged in on every side, to be fretted by the perpetual presence of arbitrary will, to be denied the exercise of my powers, it matters nothing to me whether the chain is laid on me by one or many, by king or people. A despot is not more tolerable for his many heads.
WILLIAM E. CHANNING
Thoughts
If ... it would be a gain to any man to hang himself, I certainly think that it would be of the very greatest advantage to a tyrant to do so; for he alone is profited neither by retaining his troubles nor by laying them aside.
XENOPHON
Hiero
Judicial restraint in the face of tyranny is no virtue.
JOHN HOOD
"Judicial restraint can be disastrous", Asheboro Courier Tribune, April 23, 2017
What is needed for really good tyranny is an unquestionable idea or authority. Political disagreement is political disagreement. But political disagreement with a theocracy is heresy.
MARGARET ATWOOD
Moving Targets: Writing with Intent
When one with honeyed words but evil mind
Persuades the mob, great woes befall the state.
EURIPIDES
Orestes
Freedom is sloppy. But since tyranny's the only guaranteed byproduct of those who insist on a perfect world, freedom will have to do.
BILL WILLINGHAM
Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland
Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of the body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to M. Dupont de Nemours, April 24, 1816
If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
JAMES MADISON
attributed, Founders V. Bush
In all tyrannical governments the supreme magistracy, or the right both of making and of enforcing the laws, is vested in one and the same man, or one and the same body of men; and wherever these two powers are united together, there can be no public liberty. The magistrate may enact tyrannical laws, and execute them in a tyrannical manner, since he is possessed, in quality of dispenser of justice, with all the power which he as legislator thinks proper to give himself. But, where the legislative and executive authority are in distinct hands, the former will take care not to entrust the latter with so large a power, as may tend to the subversion of it's own independence, and therewith of the liberty of the subject.
WILLIAM BLACKSTONE
Commentaries on the Laws of England
As soon as the prince sets himself up above law, he loses the king in the tyrant. He does, to all intents and purposes, unking himself by acting out of and beyond that sphere which the constitution allows him to move in; and in such cases he has no more right to be obeyed than any inferior officer who acts beyond his commission.
JONATHAN MAYHEW
A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers
There always appears, on the ruins of tyranny, a man taller than the others, a man that everyone sees, that everyone listens to and this one is the master of rubble.
ANSELME BELLEGARRIGUE
Au fait! Au fait! Interprétation de l'idée démocratique
Authority and power are two different things: power is the force by means of which you can oblige others to obey you. Authority is the right to direct and command, to be listened to or obeyed by others. Authority requests power. Power without authority is tyranny.
JACQUES MARITAIN
"The Democratic Charter", Man and the State
Tyrants are never safe.
SIR MARTIN A. SHEE
attributed, Day's Collacon
When a people shall have become incapable of governing themselves, and fit for a master, it is of little consequence from what quarter he comes.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, April 28, 1788