Tyranny Quotes - Page 31

• By giving the government unlimited powers, the most arbitrary rule can be made legal; and in this way a democracy may set up the most complete despotism imaginable.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Government, Giving, Democracy

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• Beware lest in your anxiety to avoid war you obtain a master

  Demosthenes

  Peace, War, Anxiety

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• Can any reasonable man be well disposed toward a government which makes war and carnage the only means of supporting itself?

  Alexander Hamilton

  War, Mean, Men

  Alexander Hamilton, Morton J. Frisch (1985). “Selected writings and speeches of Alexander Hamilton”, Aei Pr

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• The Patriot Act followed 9-11 as smoothly as the suspension of the Weimar constitution after the Reichstag Fire Decree.

  Sr?a Trifkovic

  Fire, Constitution, Patriot

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• The most common characteristic of all police states is intimidation by surveillance. Citizens know they are being watched and overheard. Their mail is being examined. Their homes can be invaded.

  Vance Packard

  Home, Police, Citizens

  Anne Edwards, David G. McCullough, Vance Oakley Packard, Andrew Sinclair, Daphne Du Maurier (1978). “Vivien Leigh: a biography”

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• The mission of the Gestapo expanded steadily as from 1933 onward, "political criminality" was given a much broader definition than ever before and more forms of dissent and criticism were gradually criminalized. The result was that more "laws" or law-like measures were put on the books than ever.

  Sheila Fitzpatrick

  Book, Law, Political

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• When is conduct a crime, and when is a crime not a crime? When "Somebody Up There" - a monarch, a dictator, a Pope, a legislator - so decrees.

  Jessica Mitford

  Government, Prison, Dictator

  Jessica Mitford (1973). “Kind and usual punishment: the prison business”, Not Avail

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• A legislative act contrary to the Constitution is not law.

  John Marshall

  Government, Law, Constitution

  John Marshall (2005). “The Political and Economic Doctrines of John Marshall”, p.337, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

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• A decision by the Fuhrer in the express form of a law or a decree may not be scrutinized by a judge. In addition, the judge is bound by any other decision of the Fuhrer.

  Adolf Hitler

  Law, Judging, Decision

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• Peace without justice is tyranny

  William Allen White

  Peace, Editors, Justice

  William Allen White (1937). “Forty Years on Main Street”

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• The object of any tyrant would be to overthrow or diminish trial by jury, for it is the lamp that shows that freedom lives.

  Patrick Devlin, Baron Devlin

  Tyrants, Would Be, Lamps

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• I know not why any one but a school boy in his declamation would whine over the Commonwealth of Rome, which grew great only by the misery of the rest of mankind. The Romans, like others, as soon as they were rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption sold the lives and freedoms of themselves and of one another.

  Samuel Johnson

  School, Boys, Rome

  Samuel Johnson (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.”, p.473

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• Let us not be defeated by the tyranny of the world financial markets that threaten peace and democracy everywhere.

  Stephane Hessel

  Democracy, World, Financial

  "A French Manifesto to Unite Occupy Wall Street" by William D. Cohan, www.sfgate.com. November 30, 2011.

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• Neither your life nor my life, nor the future of this country, will be affected in the slightest by whether Linda Tripp is naughty or nice. But if any president is able to commit crimes with impunity by using the vast powers and perquisites of his office to cover up, then we will have a danger of corruption and abuse of power that can only grow with the passing years and generations.

  Thomas Sowell

  Country, Nice, Naughty

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• We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.

  Stewart Udall

  Confused, Power, Greatness

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• The act of voting by ordinary Iraqis in the face of extreme danger confirms President Bush's belief that people around the globe, when given a chance, will choose liberty and democracy over enslavement and tyranny.

  John Ensign

  People, Voting, President

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• Boundless intemperance In nature is a tyranny. It hath been Th' untimely emptying of the happy throne And fall of many kings.

  William Shakespeare

  Kings, Fall, Thrones

  William Shakespeare, Jonathan Bate, Eric Rasmussen (2009). “Macbeth”, p.81, Palgrave Macmillan

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• The unsuccessful strugglers against tyranny have been the chief martyrs of treason laws in all countries.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Law, Unsuccessful

  Instructions to his negotiators regarding a treaty with Spain, April 1792; cited in Knott, Secret and Sanctioned (1996).

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• We ought therefore to suspect that a great mass of information respecting the Bible, and the introduction of it into the world, has been suppressed by the united tyranny of Church and State, for the purpose of keeping people in ignorance, and which ought to be known.

  Thomas Paine

  Bible, Ignorance, People

  Thomas Paine (1830). “The Theological Works of Thomas Paine: To which are Added the Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar”, p.364

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• A husband and wife ought to continue united so long as they love each other. Any law which should bind them to cohabitation for one moment after the decay of their affection would be a most intolerable tyranny, and the most unworthy of toleration.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Husband, Law, Long

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats (1829). “The Poetical Works of Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats: Complete in One Volume”

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• The United States remains the last best hope for a mankind plagued by tyranny and deprivation. America is no stronger than its people -- and that means you and me. Well, I believe in you, and I believe that if we work together, then one day we will say, "We fought the good fight. We finished the race. We kept the faith." And to our children and our children's children, we can say, "We did all what could be done in the brief time that was given us here on earth.".

  Ronald Reagan

  Inspirational, Children, Believe

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• Doubt is the accomplice of tyranny.

  Henri Frederic Amiel

  Doubt, Accomplices

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• He (Thomas Paine) saw oppression on every hand; injustice everywhere; hypocrisy at the altar; venality on the bench, tyranny on the throne; and with a splendid courage he espoused the cause of the weak against the strong

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Strong, Hands, Hypocrisy

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1874). “An Oration on the Life and Services of Thomas Paine”, p.122

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• Affections injured by tyranny, or rigor of compulsion, like tempest-threatened trees, unfirmly rooted, never spring to timely growth

  John Ford

  Spring, Tree, Growth

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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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