Divine Right Quotes

• The state of monarchy is the supremest thing upon earth: for kings are not only God's Lieutenants upon earth, and sit upon God's throne, but even by God himself they are called Gods.

  King James I

  Kings, Thrones, Earth

  Speech to Parliament at Whitehall, March 21, 1609.

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• The people "have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge- I mean of the character and conduct of their rulers."

  John Adams

  Character, Mean, People

  'A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law' (1765)

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• We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.

  Harold MacMillan

  Kings, Fall, Experts

  1950 Speech, Strasbourg,16 Aug.

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• We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Kings, Capitalism, Seems

  Ursula K. Le Guin (2016). “Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016, with a Journal of a WriterÕs Week”, p.115, Small Beer Press

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• The divine right of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Kings, Husband, Afterlife

  'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman' (1792) ch. 3

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• Divine right of kings means the divine right of anyone who can get uppermost.

  Herbert Spencer

  Kings, Mean, Atheism

  Herbert Spencer (1873). “Social Statics; Or, The Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, & the First of Them Developed”, p.124

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• When a man and a woman have an overwhelming passion for each other, it seems to me, in spite of such obstacles dividing them as parents or husband, that they belong to each other in the name of Nature, and are lovers by Divine right, in spite of human convention or the laws.

  Nicolas Chamfort

  Love, Husband, Passion

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• Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art - the art of words.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Art, Resistance, Divine Right Of Kings

  Ursula K. Le Guin (2016). “Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016, with a Journal of a WriterÕs Week”, p.115, Small Beer Press

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• A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins.” Benjamin Franklin

  Benjamin Franklin

  Education, Wisdom, Freedom

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• Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Changed, Humans, Human Power

  Ursula K. Le Guin (2016). “Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016, with a Journal of a WriterÕs Week”, p.115, Small Beer Press

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• Till society is very differently constituted, parents, I fear, will still insist on being obeyed because they will be obeyed, and constantly endeavor to settle that power on a divine right which will not bear the investigation of reason.

  Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

  Parent, Bears, Settling

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• Both church and state claiming to be of divine origin have assumed divine right of man over woman; while church and state have thought for man, man has assumed the right to think for woman.

  Matilda Joslyn Gage

  Men, Thinking, Religion

  Matilda Joslyn Gage (1893). “Woman, Church and State: A Historical Account of the Status of Woman Through the Christian Ages: with Reminiscences of Matriarchate”

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• Empires are doomed. They become more diffuse, more broke, demagogues rule, and so I was just pointing out some similarities between past empires and what's going on right now. They all have had to apply more and more harsh rhetoric of superiority and divine right to justify the building of hegemony.

  Dar Williams

  Past, Hegemony, Empires

  Source: progressive.org

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• We admit of no government by divine right, believing that so far as power is concerned the Beneficent Creator has made no distinction amongst men; that all are upon an equality, and that the only legitimate right to govern is an express grant of power from the governed.

  William Henry Harrison

  Believe, Men, Presidential

  David A. Durfee, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, United States. President (1841-1845 : Tyler) (1970). “William Henry Harrison, 1773-1841: John Tyler, 1790-1862; chronology, documents, bibliographical aids”, Oceana Pubns

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• The sceptic ultimately undermines democracy (1) because he can see no significance in death and such things of a literal equality; (2) because he introduces different first principles, making debate impossible: and debate is the life of democracy; (3) because the fading of the images of sacred persons leaves a man too prone to be a respecter of earthly persons; (4) because there will be more, not less, respect for human rights if they can be treated as divine rights.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Rights, Democracy

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• We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable - but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Art, Kings, Resistance

  Ursula K. Le Guin (2016). “Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016, with a Journal of a WriterÕs Week”, p.115, Small Beer Press

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• I am forced to get my living by the labour of my hand; and the sweat of my brow... for bitter bread, earned under the frowns of some who have no natural or divine right to be above me, and entirely owe their grandeur and honor to grinding the faces of the poor.

  James Otis

  Hands, Sweat, Honor

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• You have a divine right to choose whom you will play with and under what circumstances. By eliminating any energy drag, the positive good things in your life will resonate faster and faster.

  Stuart Wilde

  Play, Energy, Good Things

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• America was the first country in history to be founded on, people have rights. Not the divine right of kings, not the emperor's a god, or idolized, or we have to do what the dear leader says. And, expressly, that it's a system of equal rights, and then governments are instituted to secure those rights.

  Charles Koch

  Country, Kings, Rights

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

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• "All government in essence," says Emerson, "is tyranny." It matters not whether it is government by divine right or majority rule. In every instance its aim is the absolute subordination of the individual.

  Emma Goldman

  Government, Essence, Majority Rule

  Emma Goldman (2015). “Anarchism: Top Crime Collections”, p.31, 谷月社

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• All that is mine by Divine Right is now released and reaches me in great avalanches of abundance, under grace in miraculous ways.

  Florence Scovel Shinn

  Grace, Way, Avalanches

  Florence Scovel Shinn (2013). “Your Word is Your Wand: The Secret Edition - Open Your Heart to the Real Power and Magic of Living Faith and Let the Heaven Be in You, Go Deep Inside Yourself and Back, Feel the Crazy and Divine Love and Live for Your Dreams”, p.14, Lulu Press, Inc

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• It is the growing custom to narrow control, concentrate power, disregard and disenfranchise the public; and assuming that certain powers by divine right of money-raising or by sheer assumption, have the power to do as they think best without consulting the wisdom of mankind.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Power, Thinking, Growing

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• Supporters have every divine right to slag your players off when they're not winning games.

  Dean Windass

  Football, Winning, Player

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• Before the war is ended, the war party assumes the divine right to denounce and silence all opposition to war as unpatriotic and cowardly.

  Robert M. La Follette, Sr.

  Peace, War, Party

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• When I was very young, biology, the diversity of life, was one of my main interests. I know there's this image people have that I'm this spoiled, cocky punk of an actor. Honestly, that's not who I am. I really care that so many species have been wiped out, like genocide of entire races. I believe in the divine right of all species to survive on this planet. So I decided I want to be active as an environmentalist. I learned. I asked experts. I got active.

  Leonardo DiCaprio

  Believe, Cocky, Race

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