quotations about tyrants and tyranny
A tyrant is but like a king upon a stage, a man in a vizor, and acting the part of a king in a play: he is not really a king.
JOHN MILTON
"A Defence of the People of England, in Answer to Salmasius's Defence of the King", The Prose Works of John Milton
The bodies of tyrants are generally embalmed in their own blood.
SAADI
attributed, Day's Collacon
How tyranny is authorized does not make it any less despotic, arbitrary, or cruel.
CHAS W. FREEMAN, JR.
"Greater Israel and the Prospects for Peace in the Middle East", LobeLog, May 2, 2017
Where there have been powerful governments, societies, religions, public opinions, in short wherever there has been tyranny, there the solitary philosopher has been hated; for philosophy offers an asylum to a man into which no tyranny can force it way, the inward cave, the labyrinth of the heart.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Untimely Meditations
Think'st thou there is no tyranny but that
Of blood and chains? The despotism of vice--
The weakness and the wickedness of luxury--
The negligence--the apathy--the evils
Of sensual sloth--produce ten thousand tyrants,
Whose delegated cruelty surpasses
The worst acts of one energetic master,
However harsh and hard in his own bearing.
LORD BYRON
Sardanapalus
Any excuse will serve a tyrant.
AESOP
"The Wolf and the Lamb", Aesop's Fables
Under communism, tyranny is a feature, not a bug.
JARRETT STEPMAN
"MIT Is Making Kid-Friendly Communist Propaganda", Value Walk, May 5, 2017
Tyranny is always better organized than freedom.
CHARLES PEGUY
Oeuvres en prose
God Himself has no right to be a tyrant.
WILLIAM GODWIN
Sketches of History
Even despotism does not produce its worst effects, so long as Individuality exists under it; and whatever crushes individuality, is despotism, by whatever name it may be called, and whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men.
JOHN STUART MILL
On Liberty
Tyranny is Tyranny, let it come from whom it may.
HOWARD ZINN
A People's History of the United States
Consider those grand agents and lieutenants of the devil, by whom he scourges and plagues the world under him, to-wit, tyrants; and was there ever any tyrant who was not also false and perfidious?
ROBERT SOUTH
Twelve Sermons
Tyranny has no need of arts or sciences, for its policy, which is very shallow and without any refinement, only consists in shedding blood.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Sovereign and the State", Les Caractères
Make men large and strong, and tyranny will bankrupt itself in making shackles for them.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
A cruel reign is disordered and hidden in darkness, and while all shake with terror at the sudden explosions, not even he who caused all this disturbance escapes unharmed.
SENECA
"On Clemency", Minor Dialogues: Together with the Dialogue on Clemency
The tyrant, it has been said, is but a slave turned inside out.
SAMUEL SMILES
Self-help: With Illustrations of Character, Conduct, and Perseverance
The iron hand crush'd the Tyrant's head
And became a Tyrant in his stead.
WILLIAM BLAKE
The Grey Monk
'Twixt kings and tyrants there's this difference known:
Kings seek their subjects' good, tyrants their own.
ROBERT HERRICK
Kings and Tyrants
When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.
PLATO
The Republic
The only remaining bulwark against tyranny is a free press. Not surprisingly, it is under severe attack by our president and his minions.
JAMSHED DASTUR
letter to the editor, Los Angeles Times, May 4, 2017