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Orwell’s 1984 convinced me, rightly or wrongly, that Marxism was only a quantum leap away from tyranny. By contrast, Huxley’s Brave New World suggested that the totalitarian systems of the future might be subservient and ingratiating. J G Ballard
Resistance to tyranny is man’s highest ideal. Emma Goldman
Any unity which doesn’t have its origin in the multitudes is tyranny. Blaise Pascal
There can be but little liberty on earth while men worship a tyrant in heaven. Robert G Ingersoll
‘We did it to ourselves. And I learnt from it that I would never ever again do the bidding of a tyrant.’ Scientology: Going Clear: The Prison of Belief ***** 2015
It is the wish to be a slave. It is the desire that there be an unalterable unchallengeable tyrannical authority who can convict you of thought crime while you are asleep. Who can subject you – who must indeed subject you – to a total surveillance ... A celestial North Korea. Who wants this to be true? Who but a slave desires such a ghastly fate? ... At least you can fucking die and leave North Korea. Christopher Hitchens
Most of the tyrannies under which humans have laboured in the past and continue to labour under in the present have in their essence been theocratic. Christopher Hitchens
Long time men lay oppressed to slavish fear. Religion’s tyranny did domineer. Lucretius, Ode to Epicurus
And all the plagues with which mankind are curst,
Ecclesiastic tyranny’s the worst. Daniel Defoe, 1660-1731, The True-Born Englishman
Nature has left this tincture in the blood,
That all men would be tyrants if they could. Daniel Defoe, The Complete English Tradesman: The History of the Kentish Petition, 1725
The land had once enfranchised herself from this impertinent yoke of prelaty, under whose inquisitorious and tyrannical duncery no free and splendid wit can flourish. John Milton, The Reason of Church Government, 1642
Anarchy is the sure consequence of tyranny; or no power that is not limited by laws can ever be protected by them. John Milton
He that rebels against reason is a real rebel, but he that in defence of reason rebels against tyranny has a better title to Defender of the Faith, than George the Third. Thomas Paine
These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated. Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, 1776
Despotic government supports itself by abject civilization, in which debasement of the human mind, and wretchedness in the mass of the people, are the chief criterions. Such governments consider man merely as an animal; that the exercise of intellectual faculty is not his privilege; that he has nothing to do with the laws but to obey them; and they politically depend more upon breaking the spirit of the people by poverty, than they fear enraging it by desperation. Thomas Paine, First Principles of Government, 1795
When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty. Thomas Jefferson
Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. Thomas Jefferson motto
I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of men. Thomas Jefferson
Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. Thomas Jefferson
Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day. Thomas Jefferson
What … can be more shameless than for society to make an example of those whom she has goaded to the breach of order, instead of amending her own institutions which, by straining order into tyranny, produced the mischief? William Godwin, 1756-1836, English philosopher & novelist & husband of Mary Wollstonecraft
From the tyranny of man, I firmly believe, the greater number of female follies proceed. Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women
The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. Jeremy Bentham
Tyranny and anarchy are never far apart. Jeremy Bentham
The history of these tyrannies, however, tells us something very different. There is a pattern to them which reflects the central characteristic of the world we live in: that it is run by a small class for profit; and the source of that profit is the workers who produce the wealth. The class on top much prefers to make its profits without any nastiness from the masses it exploits. The rulers prefer to operate where the people choose their governments, and where everyone in society is subject to the rule of law. If people vote for their government, and are protected by the rule of law, they are much less likely to complain about their exploitation. Hence the ‘norm’ which seems to emerge from the history of the western democracies – a norm of elected governments and a set of laws which at any rate pretend to apply equally to everyone. Paul Foot: No Time to Make Up
Russia was not a socialist society at all. It was a state-capitalist society presided over by a tyranny every bit as savage as any stock exchange-based capitalist tyranny anywhere else in the world. Paul Foot, The Case For Socialism ch2
The government has a defect: it’s potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they’re pure tyrannies. So therefore you want to keep corporations invisible and focus all anger on the government. Noam Chomsky
You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home – all the more powerful because forbidden – terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic. Winston Churchill, broadcast to the United States from London 16 October 1938
Dictatorship – the fetish worship of one man – is a passing phase. A state of society where men may not speak their minds, where children denounce their parents to the police, where a business man or small shopkeeper ruins his competitor by telling tales about his private opinions; such a state of society cannot long endure if brought into contact with the healthy outside world. The light of civilised progress with its tolerances and co-operation, with its dignities and joys, has often in the past been blotted out. ibid.