quotations about tyrants and tyranny
Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.
WINSTON CHURCHILL
letter, November 11, 1937
In an ordinary despotism, the powers of a despot are limited by his bodily capacity, and by the calls of pleasure; he is but one man; there are but twelve hours in his day, and he is not disposed to employ more than a small part in dull business; he keeps the rest for the court, or the harem, or for society.
WALTER BAGEHOT
Literary Studies
Is there no tyrant but the crowned one?
JOSEPH CHENIER
Caius Gracchus
There is a secret pride in every human heart that revolts at tyranny; you may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.
JOHN GOODWIN
attributed, Day's Collacon
How terrible is the pain of the mind and heart when the freedom of mankind is suppressed!
E. A. BUCCHIANERI
Brushstrokes of a Gadfly
As usurpation is the exercise of power which another has a right to, so tyranny is the exercise of power beyond right, which nobody can have a right to.
JOHN LOCKE
Second Treatise of Civil Government
Some of the cruelest tyrants in history were motivated by noble ideals, or made choices that they would call 'hard but necessary steps' for the good of their nation. We're all the hero of our own story.
JIM BUTCHER
Turn Coat
Tyranny produces two results, exactly opposite in character, and which are symbolized in those two great types of the slave in classical times -- Epictetus and Spartacus. The one is hatred with its evil train, the other meekness with its Christian graces.
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
A Daughter of Eve
The belief that democracy can liberate a world bound by tyranny is not far-fetched or wrong. The problem lies in implementation.
KATALINA PETERSON
"For speech contest, Beaumont students tackle dilemma of democracy in the Middle East", The Record Gazette, April 20, 2017
All hereditary government is in its nature tyranny. An heritable crown, or an heritable throne, or by what other fanciful name such things may be called, have no other significant explanation than that mankind are heritable property. To inherit a government, is to inherit the people, as if they were flocks and herds.
THOMAS PAINE
The Rights of Man
Whenever kingship approaches tyranny it is near its end, for by this it becomes ripe for division, change of dynasty, or total destruction, especially in a temperate climate ... where men are habitually, morally and naturally free.
NICOLE ORESME
De Moneta
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
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
It is, in fact, far easier to act under conditions of tyranny than it is to think.
HANNAH ARENDT
The Human Condition
The power of art to outlast tyranny is very great. Authoritarian regimes may, for a short time, control the present, but we control the future. And that's what we have to remember -- that we have to keep creating that work that will tell the future what the present is like.
SALMAN RUSHDIE
"Rushdie Emphasizes the 'Power of Art to Outlast Tyranny'", Princeton Alumni Weekly, May 11, 2017
It is not to avoid cold or hunger that tyrants cover themselves with blood; and states decree the most illustrious rewards, not to him who catches a thief, but to him who kills an usurper.
ARISTOTLE
Politics
It is better to have one king than many tyrants.
CECILE RENARD
attributed, Day's Collacon