Tyranny Quotes - Page 19

• As a form of government, imperialism does not seek or require the consent of the governed. It is a pure form of tyranny. The American attempt to combine domestic democracy with such tyrannical control over foreigners is hopelessly contradictory and hypocritical. A country can be democratic or it can be imperialistic, but it cannot be both.

  Chalmers Johnson

  Country, Government, Democracy

  Chalmers Johnson (2010). “Dismantling the Empire: America's Last Best Hope”, p.34, Metropolitan Books

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• It is perfectly clear that people, given no alternative, will choose tyranny over anarchy, because anarchy is the worst tyranny of all... The special nature of liberties is that they can be defended only as long as we still have them. So the very first signs of their erosion must be resisted, whether the issue be domestic surveillance by the Army, so-called preventive detention, or the freedom of corporate television, or that of a campus newspaper.

  Eric Sevareid

  Army, Erosion, Issues

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• Revolution is engendered by an indignation with tyranny, yet is itself pregnant with tyranny.... An attempt to scrutinize men's thoughts and punish their opinions is of all kinds of despotism the most odious: yet this is peculiarly character of a period of revolution.... There is no period more at war with the existence of liberty.

  William Godwin

  War, Character, Men

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• I confess that I do not see what good it does to fulminate against the English tyranny while the Roman tyranny occupies the palace of the soul.

  James Joyce

  Soul, Atheism, Doe

  James Joyce (1959). “Critical writings”

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• The use of violence is justified only under a tyranny which makes reforms without violence impossible, and should have only one aim, that is, to bring about a state of affairs which makes reforms without violence possible.

  Karl Popper

  Should Have, Atheism, Use

  Karl Popper (2012). “The Open Society and Its Enemies”, p.360, Routledge

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• Two hundred years ago the forces of freedom challenged this idea. The children of the new enlightenment rose up to defy the tyranny of arrogant clergy and the censorship of pious bureaucrats. They boldly proclaimed that the state must be free from religious coercion and that religion must be free from state control. All individuals have the right to pursue the dictates of their own conscience. All citizens even have the right not to be religious at all.

  Sherwin Wine

  Religious, Children, Years

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• Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

  C. S. Lewis

  Tyrants, Libertarian Party, Democracies Have

  C. S. Lewis (2014). “God in the Dock”, p.324, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

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• Religion, a mediaeval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms. This religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today. I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity. 'Respect for religion' has become a code phrase meaning 'fear of religion.' Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.

  Salman Rushdie

  Religious, Art, Real

  "Salman Rushdie: ‘I Stand With Charlie Hebdo, as We All Must’". blogs.wsj.com. January 07, 2015.

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• How far does one combine resistance to over-control with social justice, i.e. tolerable living for people in general? We are too selfish to be trusted, if left free, to give away enough to make people comfortable enough to give them a chance. Yet if all this is ordered for us, as to some extent it has to be, it so soon leads to tyranny. It is a very difficult problem. If only human beings had more pity, unselfishness, and justice and didn't need coercion to treat each other decently.

  Rose Macaulay

  Selfish, Compassion, Giving

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• Cruelty was the devil, and most people were, in one way or another, cruel. Tyranny, suppression, persecution, torture, slavery, war, neglect - all were cruel. The world was acid and sour with hate, fat with greed, yellow with the triumph of the strong and the rich.

  Rose Macaulay

  Strong, Hate, War

  Rose Macaulay (Dame.) (1940). “And No Man's Wit”

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• A king ruleth as he ought, a tyrant as he lists, a king to the profit of all, a tyrant only to please a few.

  Aristotle

  Kings, Tyrants, Lists

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations". P. 825, 1922.

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• ... the public and the private worlds are inseparably connected ... the tyrannies and servilities of the one are the tyrannies and servilities of the other.

  Virginia Woolf

  World, Connected, Servility

  Virginia Woolf (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)”, p.2851, Delphi Classics

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• Any practice of business which would dominate the country by its own selfish interest is a destruction of equality of opportunity. Government in business, except in emergency, is also a destruction of equal opportunity and the incarnation of tyranny through bureaucracy.

  Herbert Hoover

  Country, Selfish, Opportunity

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• ... professing myself moreover convinced that the general's unjust interference, so far from being really injurious to their felicity, was perhaps rather conducive to it, by improving their knowledge of each other, and adding strength to their attachment, I leave it to be settled, by whomsoever it may concern, whether the tendency of this work be altogether to recommend parental tyranny, or reward filial disobedience.

  Jane Austen

  Attachment, Being Real, Unjust

  Jane Austen (2009). “Northanger Abbey”, p.157, Wild Jot Press

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• Freedom is necessary for two reasons. It's necessary for the individual, because the individual, no matter how good the society is, every individual has hopes, fears, ambitions, creative urges, that transcend the purposes of his society. Therefore we have a long history of freedom, where people try to extricate themselves from tyranny for the sake of art, for the sake of science, for the sake of religion, for the sake of the conscience of the individual - this freedom is necessary for the individual.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Art, Ambition, Two

  "The Mike Wallace Interview". www.hrc.utexas.edu. April 27, 1958.

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• The First Amendment of the Constitution was not written to protect the people from religion; that amendment was written to protect religion from government tyranny. . . But now we're told our children have no right to pray in school. Nonsense. The pendulum has swung too far toward intolerance against genuine religious freedom. It is time to redress the balance.

  Ronald Reagan

  Religious, Children, School

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• Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority.

  John Paul Stevens

  Majority, Shields, Anonymity

  "Court Defends Anonymity of Pamphleteers" by Joan Biskupic, www.sfgate.com. April 20, 1995.

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• Any kind of religious tyranny concerns me.

  David Spangler

  Religious, Kind, Concern

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• Through the inevitable mismanagement of resources and goods at the disposal of the state, all forms of collectivism lead eventually to tyranny.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  States, Form, Resources

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• Putting Instagram into a different context is about rescuing it from the tyranny of now, taking it back from the muddy river that everyone is pouring things into. As a poet, as a thinker, as an artist, I believe there's another way to experience the world, and another way to experience time.It can't all just be public relations and branding; it's about making meaning with signs around you.

  Frances Stark

  Believe, Artist, Rivers

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heav'n.

  John Milton

  Sole, Paradise Lost Book 1, Paradise Lost Book 9

  John Milton (1850). “Paradise Lost”, p.21

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• I'm not a "conservative" because I see precious little left in this world worth conserving. Playing defense, it seems to me, can only forestall an inevitable slide into tyranny.

  Joseph Farah

  Defense, World, Littles

  Joseph Farah (2007). “Stop the Presses!: The Inside Story of the New Media Revolution”, p.65, WND Books

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• There's a huge cost to freedom in letting people talk about how you print these plastic guns or letting them say these things about arming for tyranny. There's also a cost to letting the government say these ideas can't be expressed, this is treason. It's difficult.

  Glenn Greenwald

  Gun, Government, Ideas

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• Dependence begets subservience and paves the way for tyranny.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Way, Subservience, Begets

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• Poverty can lead to tyranny. Capitolism creates freedom. If the poor had a better image of the rich they could be just like them.

  Josh Bernstein

  Poverty, Rich, Poor

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