Tyranny Quotes - Page 30

• When we mistake words for reality, we are subject to the tyranny of words.

  Taitetsu Unno

  Mistake, Reality, Subjects

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• The essence of tyranny is the enforcement of stupid laws.

  Edmund Burke

  Stupid, Law, Essence

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• A well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Defense, Wells, Informed Citizenry

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• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes that 'if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression', human rights should be protected by the rule of law. That just laws which uphold human rights are the necessary foundation of peace and security would be denied only by closed minds which interpret peace as the silence of all opposition and security as the assurance of their own power.

  Aung San Suu Kyi

  Peace, Men, Law

  "In Quest of Democracy". Essay by Aung San Suu Kyi, 1991.

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• As I get older, the tyranny that football exerts over my life, and therefore over the lives of the people around me, is less reasonable and less attractive.

  Nick Hornby

  Football, People, Attractive

  Nick Hornby (2005). “Fever Pitch”, p.173, Penguin UK

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• The brutal regime of the dictator fell, the regime that ruled Iraq for decades, the decades of darkness. The decades that were of tyranny.

  Jalal Talabani

  Iraq, Darkness, Dictator

  "War Ended Era of Torture, Tyranny: Iraqi President". www.abc.net.au. March 20, 2008.

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• I came to the conclusion that war was an unacceptable way of solving whatever problems there were in the world--that there would be problems of tyranny, of injustice, of nations crossing frontiers and that injustice and tyranny should not be tolerated and should be fought and resisted, but the one thing that must not be used to solve that problem is war. Because war is inevitably the indiscriminate killing of large numbers of people. And that fact overwhelms whatever moral cause is somewhere buried in the history of that war.

  Howard Zinn

  War, Numbers, People

  Howard Zinn (2012). “Howard Zinn Speaks: Collected Speeches 1963-2009”, p.108, Haymarket Books

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• Among the fundamental likeness between the Revolutionary Republicans and the Anarchists is the recognition that the little must precede the great; that the local must be the basis of the general; that there can be a free federation only when there are free communities to federate; that the spirit of the latter is carried into the councils of the former, and a local tyranny may thus become an instrument for general enslavement.

  Voltairine de Cleyre

  Community, Fundamentals, May

  Voltairine De Cleyre (1989). “Anarchism and American Traditions”, p.5, Library of Alexandria

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• Recent school shootings have lured ill-informed Americans into a war on our Second Amendment guarantees, led by the nation's tyrants and their useful idiots. ... The Second Amendment was given to us as protection against tyranny by the federal government and the Congress of the United States.

  Walter E. Williams

  War, School, Government

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• The rule of God is not tyranny, for it does not partake of a political or governmental character -- it is not a rule of authority. God is not a governor of the universe, for a governor rules over those of a like nature with himself, and exercises a political and judicial power, while God exercises a creative, a preserving, and a determinative power of an altogether different kind. If I am a servant of God, I am under no tyranny; for God does not govern, but supports, sustains, and directs me.

  William Batchelder Greene

  God, Character, Exercise

  William Batchelder Greene, Jakob Böhme, Antoine Fabre d'Olivet, Philippe-Joseph-Benjamin Buchez (1849). “Remarks on the science of history: followed by An a priori autobiography”, p.35

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• God -- if he really exist -- is good, alive, self-conscious, and governs all things according to his benevolent and holy providence; but the world shows no indications of such a benevolent and holy Providence. This earth appears to be a hell, or at best a planet condemned -- a sort of purgatory: it is filled with violence, tyranny and injustice, and yet God, if he exist, is absolute sovereign, and has willed that things should be as they are! -- Therefore there is no God.

  William Batchelder Greene

  God, Self, Alive

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• The bondage we are born into is the bondage we cannot see. Verily, freedom is little more than the ignorance of tyranny. Live long enough, and you will see: Men resent not the whip so much as the hand that wields it.

  R. Scott Bakker

  Ignorance, Men, Hands

  R. Scott Bakker (2012). “The White-Luck Warrior: Book Two”, p.38, The Overlook Press

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• The church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors.... For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! Welcome atheism! Welcome anything! in preference to the gospel, as preached by these Divines! They convert the very name of religion into an engine of tyranny and barbarous cruelty, and serve to confirm more infidels, in this age, than all the infidel writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and Bolingbroke put together have done!

  Frederick Douglass

  Country, Writing, Names

  What to the Slave is the 4th of July?, delivered 4 July 1852

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• Then let us have our libertyagain, And challenge to yourselves no sovereignty. You came not in the world without our pain, Make that a bar against your cruelty; Your fault being greater, why should you disdain Our being your equals, free from tyranny?

  Emilia Lanier

  Pain, Challenges, Faults

  1611 Salve Deus Ex Judaeorum,'Eve's Apology in Defense of Women'.

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• Dictators can always consolidate their tyranny by an appeal to patriotism.

  Aldous Huxley

  Dictator, Appeals

  Aldous Huxley (2002). “Complete Essays: 1939-1956”, Ivan R Dee

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• There is no greater tyranny than that of the dead over the living.

  Thomas Paine

  Greater

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• Tyranny sets up its own echo-chamber.

  Bruce Chatwin

  Echoes, Chamber

  1988 Utz.

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• The forces of moderation and democracy must, and will, prevail against extremism and dictatorship. I will not be intimidated... Despite threats of death, I will not acquiesce to tyranny, but rather lead the fight against it.

  Benazir Bhutto

  Courage, Fighting, Democracy

  "Journeying to democracy" by Benazir Bhutto, archive.boston.com. October 18, 2007.

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• For those who practise tyranny and deprive others of their rights, I will be harsh and stern, but for those who follow the law, I will be most soft and tender.

  Umar

  Rights, Law, Harsh

  "Al Farooq, Umar" by Muhammad Husayn Haykal, ch. 5, p. 123, 1944.

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• Human rights are particularly cherished by the West, which has never acknowledged economic rights. Human rights mean freedom from politcal oppression, tyranny and abuse, while economic oppression, tyranny and abuse are built into the very structures of globalization.

  Jeremy Seabrook

  Mean, Rights, Abuse

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• Tyranny is abhorrent, freedom benefits all, whereas violence benefits no one for long.

  Mark Kingwell

  Long, Abhorrent, Benefits

  Mark Kingwell (2000). “The World We Want: Restoring Citizenship in a Fractured Age”, p.90, Rowman & Littlefield

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• The majority falls prey to the delusion–popular in some circles–that ordinary people are too careless and stupid to own guns, and we would be far better off leaving all weapons in the hands of professionals on the government payroll. But the simple truth–born of experience–is that tyranny thrives best where government need not fear the wrath of an armed people.

  Alex Kozinski

  Stupid, Fall, Gun

  "The Individual’s Right to Bear Arms". capitalismmagazine.com. May 22, 2003.

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• Christianity persecuted, tortured, and burned. Like a hound it tracked the very scent of heresy. It kindled wars, and nursed furious hatreds and ambitions. It sanctified, quite like Mohammedism, extermination and tyranny. All this would have been impossible if, like Buddhism, it had looked only for peace and the liberation of souls. It looked beyond; it dreamt of infinite blisses and crowns it should be crowned with before an electrified universe and an applauding God... Buddhism had tried to quiet a sick world with anesthetics; Christianity sought to purge it with fire.

  George Santayana

  War, Ambition, Buddhism

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• It's not racism per se but the tyranny of normalcy - no: the tyranny of attractive normalcy. Which leads to loveable white models who are supposed to be playing ordinary, adorably flawed professionals just like you and me with their brilliant minority friends (with vastly less camera time) who are surgeons. But it's not just ethnicity. That narrow vision also extends to, say, things like women leads. Women leads have to be good-hearted and nice, with a Slutty Best Friend. The main character can't be slutty. Because that's not attractively normal etc

  Sandra Tsing Loh

  Nice, Character, Ethnicity

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• Free people can treat each other justly, but they can't make life fair. To get rid of the unfairness among individuals, you have to exercise power over them. The more fairness you want, the more power you need. Thus, all dreams of fairness become dreams of tyranny in the end.

  Andrew Klavan

  Dream, Exercise, People

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