#otis

Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear - kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor - with the cry of grave national emergency. ↗

— Douglas MacArthur

#continuous #cry #emergency #fear #fervor

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

I do think the patriotic thing to do is to critique my country. How else do you make a country better but by pointing out its flaws? ↗

— Bill Maher

#better #country #critique #else #flaws

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

You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it. ↗

— Malcolm X

#blind #face #face reality #matter #reality

There are others who aim at popularity under the disguise of patriotism. ↗

— Jonathan Mayhew

#disguise #others #patriotism #popularity #under

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

— Mary McCarthy

#bureaucracy #despotism #form #modern #rule

The highest patriotism is not a blind acceptance of official policy, but a love of one's country deep enough to call her to a higher plain. ↗

— George McGovern

#acceptance #blind #call #country #deep

Egotism is not a good quality. It's not something to be admired or even tolerated. It wouldn't be tolerated in a field commander and it shouldn't be tolerated in a movie director. ↗

— John Milius

#commander #director #egotism #even #field

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