Despotism Quotes

• Government is frequently and aptly classed under two descriptions-a government of force, and a government of laws; the first is the definition of despotism-the last, of liberty.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Government, Law, Two

  Alexander Hamilton (1851). “The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Comprising His Correspondence, and His Political and Official Writings, Exclusive of the Federalist, Civil and Military. Published from the Original Manuscripts Deposited in the Department of State, by Order of the Joint Library Committee of Congress”, p.164

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Despotism can only exist in darkness.

  James Madison

  Darkness, Firmament

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism.

  George Washington

  Country, Revenge, Party

  United States. President, George Washington, United States (1825). “The speeches, addresses and messages, of the several presidents of the United States, at the openings of Congress and at their respective inaugurations: Also, the Declaration of independence, the Constitution of the United States, and Washington's farewell address to his fellow-citizens”, p.104

  61 Copy quote

  Show source

• Where some people are very wealthy and others have nothing, the result will be either extreme democracy or absolute oligarchy, or despotism will come from either of those excesses.

  Aristotle

  People, Democracy, Excess

  'Politics' bk. 1, sect. 4, 1296a

  43 Copy quote

  Show source

• If men use their liberty in such a way as to surrender their liberty, are they thereafter any the less slaves? If people by a plebiscite elect a man despot over them, do they remain free because the despotism was of their own making?

  Herbert Spencer

  Freedom, Men, People

  Herbert Spencer, John Offer (1994). “Spencer: Political Writings”, p.76, Cambridge University Press

  46 Copy quote

  Show source

• The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.

  Thomas Paine

  Motivation, Fear, Tyrants

  74 Copy quote

• An elective despotism was not the government we fought for, but one which should not only be founded on true free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among general bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Liberty, Principles

  "Notes on the State of Virginia". Book by Thomas Jefferson, Query XIII, 1781.

  48 Copy quote

  Show source

• Many of the greatest tyrants on the records of history have begun their reigns in the fairest manner. But the truth is, this unnatural power corrupts both the heart and the understanding.

  Edmund Burke

  Heart, Tyrants, Political

  Edmund Burke (1858). “The Inherent Evils of All State Governments Demonstrated; Being a Reprint of ... “A Vindication of Natural Society.” With Notes and an Appendix, Etc”, p.19

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.

  Aristotle

  Philosophical, Historical, Democracy

  342 Copy quote

• By giving the government unlimited powers, the most arbitrary rule can be made legal; and in this way a democracy may set up the most complete despotism imaginable.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Government, Giving, Democracy

  66 Copy quote

• Despotism sits nowhere so secure as under the effigy and ensigns of freedom.

  Walter Savage Landor

  Secure

  Walter Savage Landor (1853). “The works of Walter Savage Landor [ed. by J. Forster].”, p.140

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called and whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men.

  John Stuart Mill

  Crush, Men, Names

  John Stuart Mill (2015). “On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Other Essays”, p.62, OUP Oxford

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• As virtue is necessary in a republic, and honor in a monarchy, fear is what is required in a despotism. As for virtue, it is not at all necessary, and honor would be dangerous there.

  Baron de Montesquieu

  Political, Honor, Would Be

  5 Copy quote

• It is odd to consider the connection between despotism and barbarity, and how the making one person more than man makes the rest less.

  Joseph Addison

  Men, Connections, Odd

  Joseph Addison, Richard Steele (1854). “The Spectator”, p.407

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• An elective despotism was not the government we fought for.

  Thomas Jefferson

  4th Of July, Government, Liberty

  Thomas Jefferson, Richard Holland Johnston, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• Two forms of government are favorable to the prevalence of falsehood and deceit. Under a Despotism, men are false, treacherous, and deceitful through fear, like slaves dreading the lash. Under a Democracy they are so as a means of attaining popularity and office, and because of the greed for wealth.

  Albert Pike

  Mean, Men, Two

  Albert Pike “Morals and Dogma : Scottish Rite in Freemasonry”, Lulu.com

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations; but, on a candid examination of history, we shall find that turbulence, violence, and abuse of power, by the majority trampling on the rights of the minority, have produced factions and commotions, which, in republics, have, more frequently than any other cause, produced despotism.

  James Madison

  Believe, Rights, Government

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• In a government framed for durable liberty, not less regard must be paid to giving the magistrate a proper degree of authority, to make and execute the laws with rigour, than to guarding against encroachments upon the rights of the community. As too much power leads to despotism, too little leads to anarchy, and both eventually to the ruin of the people.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Law, Rights, Government

  Alexander Hamilton (1961). “1779-1781”

  32 Copy quote

  Show source

• A great civilization is not conquered from without, until it has destroyed itself from within. The essential causes of Rome's decline lay in her people, her morals, her class struggle, her failing trade, her bureaucratic despotism, her stifling taxes, her consuming wars.

  Will Durant

  War, Struggle, Rome

  Will Durant, Ariel Durant (1944). “The Story of Civilization: Caesar and Christ, a history of Roman civilization and of Christianity from their beginnings to A.D. 325”

  95 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• Absolute power turns its possessors not into a God but an anti-God. For God turned clay into men, while the absolute despot turns men into clay.

  Eric Hoffer

  Power, Men, Clay

  8 Copy quote

• Wherever despotism abounds, the sources of public information are the first to be brought under its control.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Information, Firsts, Source

  "The Press Under a Free Government". Address before the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Washington, January 17, 1925.

  27 Copy quote

  Show source

• ‎A general State education is a mere contrivance for moulding people to be exactly like one another; and as the mould in which it casts them is that which pleases the dominant power in the government, whether this be a monarch, an aristocracy, or a majority of the existing generation; in proportion as it is efficient and successful, it establishes a despotism over the mind, leading by a natural tendency to one over the body.

  John Stuart Mill

  Education, Successful, Government

  John Stuart Mill (1978). “On Liberty”, Penguin Books

  55 Copy quote

  Show source

• Despotism and freedom of the press cannot exist together.

  Leon Gambetta

  Political, Together, Freedom Of The Press

  8 Copy quote

• Of the people, by the people, for the people.

  Sun Yat-sen

  4th Of July, Patriotic, Democracies Have

  122 Copy quote