So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable. Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means, 1937
In Loving Memory of Kim Jong-Il. The Dictator 2012 starring Sacha Baron Cohen & Anna Faris & Ben Kingsley & Jason Mantzoukas & John C Reilly & Boby Lee & Sayed Badreya & Adeel Akhtar & Fred Armisen & Mark Campbell & Edward Norton & Megan Fox & Jon Glaser et al, director Larry Charles, opening caption
Who is General Aladeen? ibid.
The world shall kneel before our great nation. We are two months away from enriching weapons-grade uranium. To be used for peaceful purposes. ibid. dictator
Pretend that I’m an idiot. ibid.
Wii Terrorist. ibid. dictator at play
We are going to the devil’s nest of America. ibid.
Ah America: Built by the blacks and owned by the Chinese. ibid. dictator in New York
I am here to deliver my speech to the United Nations. ibid. dictator to rozzer
We are a vegan feminist non-profit cooperative operating within an anti-racism, anti-oppressive framework for people of all or no genders. ibid. protester
Where are the rebel bases? ibid. dictator to baby
And you’re wanted for war crimes. ibid. her to him
Every dictator is an enemy of freedom, an opponent of law. Demosthenes
Dictators, unlike Democrats, depend on a small coterie to sustain their power. These backers, generally drawn from the military, the senior civil service, and family or clan members, have a synergistic relationship with their dictator. The dictator delivers opportunities for them to become rich, and they protect him from being overthrown. Bruce Bueno de Mesquita
I believe in benevolent dictatorship provided I am the dictator. Richard Branson
I’m not a dictator. It’s just that I have a grumpy face. Augusto Pinochet
The Queen is the ultimate dictator. Steven Patrick Morrissey
If you stand on a soapbox and trade rhetoric with a dictator you never win. Mel Brooks
We’ve been saying Putin is a dictator for years who doesn’t care about the law. Garry Kasparov
CBS news anchor Dan Rather has interviewed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. When asked what it was like to talk to a crazy man, Saddam said, ‘It's not so bad.’ Conan O’Brien
Cromwell is just as much of a bloody dictator as was Stalin. Vladimir Putin
The world will not accept dictatorship or domination. Mikhail Gorbachev
The simple fact is we do not live in a democracy. Certainly not the kind our Founding Fathers intended. We live in a corporate dictatorship represented by, and beholden to, no single human being you can reason with or hold responsible for anything. Steven van Zandt
It is remarkable how easily children and grown-ups adapt to living in a dictatorship organised by lunatics. A N Wilson
It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power, each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own. Herbert Hoover
To succeed in chaining the multitude, you must seem to wear the same fetters. Voltaire
Wherever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship. Harry S Truman, lecture 28th April 1959
When word got out we were interested in the genocide, the army would no longer let the survivors participate in the movie. And so they suggested we film with the perpetrators. The Act of Killing ***** director’s introduction, Sky Atlantic 2016
In 1965 the Indonesian government was overthrown by the military. Anybody opposed to the military dictatorship could be accused of being a communist: union members, landless farmers, intellectuals and the ethnic Chinese. In less than a year and with the direct aid of western governments, over one million ‘communists’ were murdered. ibid. caption
‘At first, we beat them to death, but there was too much blood.’ ibid. executioner
‘Communism will never be accepted here, because we have so many gangsters, and that’s a good thing.’ ibid. governor of province
Pancasila Youth is one of Indonesia’s biggest paramilitary organizations. Pancasila Youth played a leading role in the 1965-1966 killings. ibid. caption
‘We have too much democracy. It’s chaos. What is this ‘democracy’? Things were better under the military dictatorship. Better economy. More security.’ ibid. leader of Pancasila Youth
‘There were people like me everywhere in the world.’ ibid. gangster
‘But when I’m falling asleep it comes back to me.’ ibid.
‘I’m absolutely aware we were cruel.’ ibid.
‘And that is the source of all my nightmares: I’m always gazed at by those eyes that I didn’t close.’ ibid.
‘But I can feel it, Josh. Really, I feel it. Or have I sinned? I did this to so many people, Josh. [cries] Is it all coming back to me?’ ibid.
I would like to be a dictator. Jimmy Hill: A Man for All Seasons, Jimmy, BBC 2016
World domination? That means Fu Manchu. The Vengeance of Fu Manchu 1967 starring Christopher Lee & Douglas Wilmer & Tsai Chin & Horst Frank & Noel Trevarthen & Maria Rohm et al, director Jeremy Summers
Kazakhstan: a massive country in central Asia … Nursultan Nazarbayev has been president of Kazakhstan since 1991. And the funny thing about him is that almost everyone seems to like him. Ben Zand: Dictatorland I: Kazakhstan, BBC 2017
His government doesn’t seem to mind killing people too much. ibid.
Kazakhstan has masses of oil and gas. ibid.
Nazarbayev has made it illegal to criticise him. ibid.
They are dictators: and that means they love power, they hate journalists like me, and they are quite frankly ridiculous. Ben Zand, Dictatorland II: Belarus
The country is next door to Poland, slap bang between the EU and Russia. It’s been ruled since 1994 by President Alexander Lukashenko. ibid.
‘It’s better to be a dictator than to be gay!’ ibid. Lukashenko
He rigs his elections and doesn’t really seem to care if the world knows about it. And since taking power Lukashenko has rewritten the constitution. ibid.
It’s been ruled since 1996 by President Emomali Rahmon who is also officially known as the Leader of the Nation, and Founder of Peace and National Unity. Ben Zand in Dictatorland III: Tajikstan, BBC 2017
People in Tajikistan have an average income of just £800 a year. ibid.
Belarus: I don’t really understand what a dictator is, but on the other hand I sometimes, in a nice way, envy myself. I am the last and only dictator in Europe and indeed there are none anywhere else in the world. Alexander Lukashenko
The result is that many old certainties appear far less certain, and history shows that in troubled times people often turn to someone who promises they can fix all the problems if only they’re granted supreme power. And that is the appeal of the dictator. David Olusoga, A Timewatch Guide: Dictators & Despots, BBC 2019
The rise and fall of the most recent dictators followed by television cameras in ever closer detail. So why are dictators such an object of fascination? And does our fascination feed their power? ibid.
Caesar was notoriously vain about his appearance … Even without TV, Julius Caesar hit upon a way of spreading his image throughout the known world. ibid.