#despot

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. ↗

— Abraham Lincoln

#defense #despotism #destroy #doors #everywhere

A good constitution is infinitely better than the best despot. ↗

— Thomas B. Macaulay

#better #constitution #despot #good #infinitely

Despotism can only exist in darkness, and there are too many lights now in the political firmament to permit it to remain anywhere, as it has heretofore done, almost everywhere. ↗

— James Madison

#anywhere #darkness #despotism #done #everywhere

Man is insatiable for power; he is infantile in his desires and, always discontented with what he has, loves only what he has not. People complain of the despotism of princes; they ought to complain of the despotism of man. ↗

— Joseph de Maistre

#complain #desires #despotism #discontented #his

Bureaucracy, the rule of no one, has become the modern form of despotism. ↗

— Mary McCarthy

#bureaucracy #despotism #form #modern #rule

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

#crushes #despotism #enforcing #god #individuality

The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement. ↗

— John Stuart Mill

#custom #despotism #everywhere #hindrance #human

And I hereby distinctly and emphatically declare that I consider myself, and earnestly desire to be considered by others, as utterly divested, now and during the rest of my life, of any such rights, the barbarous relics of a feudal, despotic system. ↗

— Robert Dale Owen

#barbarous #consider #considered #declare #desire

Freedom is contagious. That's why despots fear it so much. ↗

— Bill Owens

#despots #fear #freedom #much #why

The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance. ↗

— Thomas Paine

#despotism #fear #power #resistance #strength