Totalitarianism Quotes - Page 2

• A civilization in which there is not a continuous controversy about important issues is on the way to totalitarianism and death

  Robert M. Hutchins

  Civilization, Issues, Important

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• Human rights commissions, as they are evolving, are an attack on our fundamental freedoms and the basic existence of a democratic society... It is in fact totalitarianism. I find this is very scary stuff.

  Stephen Harper

  Rights, Scary, Fundamentals

  "BC Report Newsmagazine", January 11, 1999.

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• If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.

  George Orwell

  Time, Freedom, Future

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• Socialism is inseparably interwoven with totalitarianism and the object worship of the state.

  Winston Churchill

  Politics, Worship, Socialism

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• A tax-supported, compulsory educational system is the complete model of the totalitarian state.

  Isabel Paterson

  Education, Historical, Liberty

  Isabel Paterson (1993). “God of the Machine”, p.258, Transaction Publishers

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• As long as human beings are imperfect, there will always be arguments for extending the power of government to deal with these imperfections. The only logical stopping place is totalitarianism -- unless we realize that tolerating imperfections is the price of freedom.

  Thomas Sowell

  Government, Long, Imperfection

  Thomas Sowell (2013). “Ever Wonder Why?: and Other Controversial Essays”, p.332, Hoover Press

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• In so far as it takes effect at all, pacifist propaganda can only be effective against those countries where a certain amount of freedom of speech is still permitted; in other words it is helpful to totalitarianism.

  George Orwell

  Country, Freedom Of Speech, Helpful

  George Orwell (1998). “The complete works of George Orwell”

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• Corporate nationalism to me is a little bit like what would have happened if Hitler had won. It's scary stuff. It's totalitarianism in a different from, under a different flavour.

  Lance Henriksen

  Scary, Littles, Stuff

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• Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly against totalitarianism and for democratic Socialism as I understand it.

  George Orwell

  Democratic Socialism, Serious Work, Lines

  George Orwell (1970). “A Collection of Essays”, p.314, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.

  George Orwell

  Life, Happiness, Truth

  Nineteen Eighty-Four pt. 1, ch. 7 (1949) See Orwell 19

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• If, when the chips are down, the worlds most powerful nation, the United States of America, acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world.

  Richard M. Nixon

  Powerful, America, United States

  Televised speech announcing offensive into Cambodia, 30 Apr. 1970

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• Having lived through the transition from totalitarianism, I am acutely mindful of the need to never take for granted the basic freedoms of thought, expression and belief that democracy brings.

  Daisaku Ikeda

  Expression, Democracy, Transition

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• A lawn is nature under totalitarian rule.

  Michael Pollan

  Environment, Grass, Lawns

  Michael Pollan (2007). “Second Nature: A Gardener's Education”, p.48, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• Russia needs a strong state power and must have it. But I am not calling for totalitarianism.

  Vladimir Putin

  Strong, Russia, Needs

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• My family has been deeply affected by the split of Korea, which divided it in half, basically, before I was born. There's no way to connect with my family now who are in North Korea because it's so isolated. We don't even know who is still there and who is alive, and if they are, what they are doing. Comedy is the only weapon I have to battle this totalitarianism.

  Margaret Cho

  Korea, Battle, Half

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• [Socialistic] economic planning, regulation, and intervention pave the way to totalitarianism by building a power structure that will inevitably be seized by the most power-hungry and unscrupulous.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Regulation, Way, Planning

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• There is a totalitarian regime inside every one of us. We are ruled by a ruthless politburo which sets our norms and drives us from one five-year plan to another. The autonomous individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.

  Eric Hoffer

  Years, Effort, Individuality

  Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

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• None of the evils which totalitarianism ... claims to remedy is worse than totalitarianism itself.

  Albert Camus

  Evil, Claims, Remedy

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• I'm a fuzzy-headed warm-hearted liberal, and I think fuzzy-headed warm-hearted liberalism is an ideological stance that needs defending-if necessary, with a hob-nailed boot-kick to the bollocks of budding totalitarianism.

  Charles Stross

  Thinking, Needs, Boots

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• I have read somewhere that in a totalitarian system martyrdom does better than thought.

  Vaclav Havel

  Doe, Martyrdom

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• The misconception of totalitarianism is that freedom can be imprisoned. This is not the case. When you constrain freedom, freedom will take flight and land on a windowsill.

  Ai Weiwei

  Land, Flight, Cases

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• The only successful revolution of this century is totalitarianism.

  Bernard-Henri Levy

  Successful, Revolution, Rebellious

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• It belongs among the refinements of totalitarian government in our century that they don't permit their opponents to die a great, dramatic martyr's death for their convictions.

  Hannah Arendt

  Government, Opponents, Dramatic

  Hannah Arendt (2006). “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil”, p.206, Penguin

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• The strongest argument against totalitarianism may be a recognition of a universal human nature; that all humans have innate desires for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The doctrine of the blank slate... is a totalitarian's dream.

  Steven Pinker

  Dream, Pursuit Of Happiness, Desire

  "Steven Pinker: the optimistic voice of science" by Andrew Anthony, www.theguardian.com. September 17, 2011.

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• If it turns out that President Barack Obama can make a deal with the most intransigent, hard-line, unreasonable, totalitarian mullahs in the world but not with Republicans? Maybe he's not the problem.

  Jon Stewart

  Funny, Usa, America

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