#despotism

First Afghanistan, now Iraq. So who's next? Syria? North Korea? Iran? Where will it all end?' If these illegal interventions are permitted to continue, the implication seems to be, pretty soon, horror of horrors, no murderously repressive regimes might remain. ↗

— Daniel Kofman

#antiwar-movement #axis-of-evil #despotism #foreign-policy #foreign-policy-of-the-us

Small natures require despotism to exercise their sinews, as great souls thirst for equality to give play to their heart. ↗

— Honore de Balzac

#equality #exercise #give #great #great souls

Despotism is a long crime. ↗

— Victor Hugo

#despotism #long

Is not liberty the destruction of all despotism - including, of course, legal despotism? ↗

— Frederic Bastiat

#despotism #destruction #including #legal #liberty

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

— Mary McCarthy

#bureaucracy #despotism #form #modern #rule

Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#force #immediate #parent #principle #vital

Have any of our friends got off the Island with their families, or what must they submit to? Despotism or destruction, I fear, is their fate. ↗

— William Floyd

#despotism #destruction #families #fate #fear

As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy. ↗

— Abraham Lincoln

#bigotry #despotism #equality #hypocrisy #know-nothings

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

#freedom #freedom

I love my country, not my government. ↗

— Jesse Ventura

#bill-of-rights #constitution #despotism #freedom #government