Tyrants Quotes - Page 9

• Without some form of censorship, propaganda in the strict sense of the word is impossible. In order to conduct propaganda there must be some barrier between the public and the event.

  Walter Lippmann

  Order, Events, Impossible

  Walter Lippmann (2012). “Public Opinion”, p.23, Courier Corporation

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• Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of heaven on a Country. As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes & effects providence punishes national sins, by national calamities.

  George Mason

  Country, Heaven, World

  "The Journal of the Debates in the Convention which Framed the Constitution of the United States, May-September, 1787", Volume 2, as recorded by James Madison, 1908.

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• The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand and terrorism on the other.

  Bertrand Russell

  Intelligent, Men, Emotional

  Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.441, Psychology Press

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• 'Useful,' and 'necessity' was always 'the tyrant's plea'.

  C. S. Lewis

  Freedom, Liberty, Tyranny

  C. S. Lewis (2014). “God in the Dock”, p.333, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

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• I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave.

  H. L. Mencken

  Freedom, Believe, Men

  "Why Liberty?". Chicago Tribune, January 30, 1927.

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• Try this thought experiment. Pretend you're a tyrant. Among your many liberty-destroying objectives are extermination of blacks, Jews and Catholics. Which would you prefer, a United States with political power centralized in Washington, powerful government agencies with detailed information on Americans and compliant states or power widely dispersed over 50 states, thousands of local jurisdictions and a limited federal government?

  Walter E. Williams

  Powerful, Agency, Government

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• When your little child tells a lie, do not rush at him as though the world were about to go into bankruptcy. Be honest with him. A tyrant father will have liars for his children; do you know that? A lie is born of tyranny upon the one hand and weakness upon the other, and when you rush at a poor little boy with a club in your hand, of course he lies.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Children, Kindness, Father

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1920). “Ingersoll: Fifty Great Selections, Lectures, Tributes, After Dinner Speeches and Essays, Carefully Selected from the Twelve Volume Dresden Edition of Colonel Ingersoll's Complete Works”

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• The tyrant claims freedom to kill freedom, and yet keep it for himself.

  Rabindranath Tagore

  Freedom, Liberty, Claims

  Rabindranath Tagore, Mohit Kumar Ray (2007). “Poems”, p.442, Atlantic Publishers & Dist

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• How many does it take to metamorphose wickedness into righteousness? One man must not kill. If he does, it is murder.... But a state or nation may kill as many as they please, and it is not murder. It is just, necessary, commendable, and right. Only get people enough to agree to it, and the butchery of myriads of human beings is perfectly innocent. But how many does it take?

  Adin Ballou

  Religious, War, Men

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• The East Wind, an interloper in the dominions of Westerly Weather, is an impassive-faced tyrant with a sharp poniard held behind his back for a treacherous stab.

  Joseph Conrad

  Wind, Weather, East

  Joseph Conrad (2015). “Complete Short Stories of Joseph Conrad (Including His Memoirs, Letters & Critical Essays: Unforgettable Tales like Heart of Darkness, Point of Honor, Falk, Secret Sharer, The Return & Freya of Seven Isles”, p.1330, e-artnow

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• I would not be beholden to a tyrant, for his acts of tyranny. For it is but usurpation in him to save, as their rightful lord, the lives of men over whom he has no title to reign.

  Cato the Younger

  Freedom, Men, Liberty

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• Unanimity of opinion may be fitting for a church, for the frightened or greedy victims of some (ancient, or modern) myth, or for the weak and willing followers of some tyrant. Variety of opinion is necessary for objective knowledge. And a method that encourages variety is also the only method that is comparable with a humanitarian outlook.

  Paul Feyerabend

  Knowledge, Science, Church

  Paul Feyerabend (1975). “Against method: outline of an anarchistic theory of knowledge”, Not Avail

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• Martyrs have been sincere. And so have tyrants. Wise men have been sincere. And so have fools.

  E. Haldeman-Julius

  Wise, Fear, Men

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• Pacifists become militants. Freedom fighters become tyrants. Blessings become curses. Help becomes hindrance. More becomes less.

  Tim Ferriss

  Blessing, Helping, Fighter

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• A surging, seething, murmuring crowd of beings that are human only in name, for to the eye and ear they seem naught but savage creatures, animated by vile passions and by the lust of vengeance and of hate. The hour, some little time before sunset, and the place, the West Barricade, at the very spot where, a decade later, a proud tyrant raised an undying monument to the nation's glory and his own vanity.

  Baroness Orczy

  Hate, Passion, Sunset

  Baroness Orczy (2015). “The Scarlet Pimpernel”, p.5, Xist Publishing

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• From one tyrant to another. That is the world we know, now

  Veronica Roth

  World, Knows

  Veronica Roth (2015). “Allegiant Collector's Edition”, p.11, HarperCollins

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• Love is the tyrant of the heart; it darkens
  Reason, confounds discretion; deaf to Counsel
  It runs a headlong course to desperate madness.

  John Ford

  Life, Running, Heart

  John Ford (1831). “The Dramatic Works of John Ford: The lover's melancholy. The broken heart. Perkin Warbeck”, p.63

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• History has a long-range perspective. It ultimately passes stern judgment on tyrants and vindicates those who fought, suffered, were imprisoned, and died for human freedom, against political oppression and economic slavery.

  Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

  Peace, Freedom, Long

  Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1949). “Labor's Own William Z. Foster: A Communist's Fifty Years of Working-class Leadership and Struggle”, New York : New Century Publishers

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• Through talk, we tamed kings, restrained tyrants, averted revolution

  Tony Benn

  Kings, Politics, Revolution

  Tony Benn, Joan Bodington (1974). “Speeches”

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• Now you fear punishment and beg for your lives, so I will let you free, if not for any other reason so that you can see the difference between a Greek king and a barbarian tyrant, so do not expect to suffer any harm from me. A king does not kill messengers.

  Alexander the Great

  Kings, Army, Punishment

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• Whether or not patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, national security can be the last refuge of the tyrant.

  Robert Walker, Baron Walker of Gestingthorpe

  Peace, War, Lasts

  "A gag full of holes". www.theguardian.com. May 11, 2007.

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• Wars of aggression are the most barbarous of all human endeavors and are, more often than not, the instruments of insane tyrants who hear voices.

  Rodrigue Tremblay

  War, Voice, Insane

  Rodrigue Tremblay, Paul Kurtz (2010). “The Code for Global Ethics: Ten Humanist Principles”

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• If you want war, nourish a doctrine. Doctrines are the most frightful tyrants to which men ever are subject.

  William Graham Sumner

  Peace, War, Men

  William Graham Sumner (1919). “War and Other Essays”

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• Morality is stronger than tyrants.

  Louis Antoine de Saint-Just

  Perseverance, Stronger, Morality

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• If thou wouldst rule well, thou must rule for God, and to do that, thou must be ruled by him. Those who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.

  William Penn

  Independent, Moral Ethics, Gods Will

  Letter to Peter the Great, the Czar of Russia, on July 02, 1698. "The Life of William Penn". Book by Samuel M. Janney, p. 407, 1852.

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