Despotism Quotes - Page 3

• Man is insatiable for power; he is infantile in his desires and, always discontented with what he has, loves only what he has not. People complain of the despotism of princes; they ought to complain of the despotism of man.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Love, Power, Men

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• Equality, rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.

  Barry Goldwater

  Father, Equality, Differences

  Speech Accepting the Republican Presidential Nomination, delivered 16 July 1964, San Francisco

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• Their poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism.

  Edward Gibbon

  Freedom, Desire, Liberty

  Edward Gibbon (1839). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.127

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• Freedom of conscience entails more dangers than authority and despotism.

  Michel Foucault

  Freedom, Tyrants, Authority

  Michel Foucault (1971). “Madness and Civilization”

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• So long as war is the main business of nations, temporary despotism - despotism during the campaign - is indispensable.

  Walter Bagehot

  Business, War, Tyrants

  Walter Bagehot (1873). “Physics and Politics: Or, Thoughts on the Application of the Principles of "natural Selection" and "inheritance" to Political Society”, p.65

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• Despotism isn't nearly as bad as it's cracked up to be.

  Arabella Weir

  Cracked

  "Auditions are hell, but I never thought that I would have to go through 'casting' to get on Newsnight - and fail" by Arabella Weir, www.theguardian.com. May 26, 2006.

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• There are three kinds of despots. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the body. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul and body alike. The first is called the Prince. The second is called the Pope. The third is called the People.

  Oscar Wilde

  Government, Soul And Body, People

  Oscar Wilde (1969). “The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde”, p.282, University of Chicago Press

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• Each man has an equal social right to multiply his power of motion by all the social factors of civilization. Private property in any of these factors is inconsistent with this fundamental right; it must, obviously, prove a source of economic despotism and industrial slavery.

  Daniel De Leon

  Men, Civilization, Tyrants

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• Small natures require despotism to exercise their sinews, as great souls thirst for equality to give play to their heart.

  Honore de Balzac

  Heart, Exercise, Equality

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• The revolutionary government is the despotism of liberty against tyranny

  Georg Buchner

  Government, Tyrants, Liberty

  Georg Buchner, Howard Brenton (2013). “Danton's Death”, p.17, A&C Black

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• Despotism can no more exist in a nation until the liberty of the press be destroyed than the night can happen before the sun is set.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Night, Liberty, Sun

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.198

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• Whatever crushes individuality is despotism.

  John Stuart Mill

  Crush, Individuality, Liberty

  On Liberty ch. 3 (1859)

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• Despotism increases in severity with the number of despots; the responsibility is more divided, and the claims are more numerous.

  William Wells Brown

  Responsibility, Tyrants, Numbers

  William Wells Brown (1853). “Clotel; or, The president's daughter”, p.179

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• Is not liberty the destruction of all despotism - including, of course, legal despotism?

  Frederic Bastiat

  Liberty, Destruction, Courses

  Frederic Bastiat (2006). “The Law”, p.41, Cosimo, Inc.

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• The more complete the despotism, the more smoothly all things move on the surface.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Moving, Tyrants, Surface

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan Brownell Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Ida Husted Harper (1889). “History of woman suffrage”

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• Religions are the cradles of despotism.

  Marquis de Sade

  Tyrants, Religion, Literature

  Marquis de Sade “Philosophy in the Bedroom: An Erotic Novel”, Library of Alexandria

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• The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement.

  John Stuart Mill

  Advancement, Standing Alone, Humans

  John Stuart Mill (1989). “J. S. Mill: 'On Liberty' and Other Writings”, p.70, Cambridge University Press

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• Despotism is unjust to everybody, including the despot, who was probably made for better things.

  Oscar Wilde

  Government, Unjust, Made

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.1049, Wordsworth Editions

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• France was long a despotism tempered by epigrams.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Long, France, Epigrams

  History of the French Revolution vol. 3, bk. 7, ch. 7 (1837)

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• Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Men, Doors, Land

  Abraham Lincoln, Bob Blaisdell (2005). “The Wit and Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln: A Book of Quotations”, p.3, Courier Corporation

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• To add to our misery and despair, a bloated aristocracy has sent to China - the greatest and oldest despotism in the world - for a cheap working slave.

  Denis Kearney

  Tyrants, Despair, World

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• As a nation we began by declaring that all me are created equal. We now practically read it, all men are created equal except Negroes.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Men, Equal

  Letter to Joshua F. Speed, 24 Aug. 1855

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• Democracy has two excesses to avoid: the spirit of inequality, which leads to an aristocracy, or to the government of a single individual; and the spirit of extreme equality, which conducts it to despotism, as the despotism of a single individual finishes by conquest.

  Baron de Montesquieu

  Wisdom, Democracies Have, Government

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• 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

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• The doctrine of blind obedience and unqualified submission to any human power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism.

  Angelina Grimke

  Doctrine, Libertarian, Unqualified

  Sarah Grimke, Angelina Grimke (2015). “On Slavery and Abolitionism: Essays and Letters”, p.97, Penguin

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