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Famous Timothy Snyder Quotes

“Be as courageous as you can. If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die under tyranny.”

Freedom Courage Bravery Tyranny

Book:On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

Source: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

“You submit to tyranny when you renounce the difference between what you want to hear and what is actually the case. This renunciation of reality can feel natural and pleasant, but the result is your demise as an individual—and thus the collapse of any political system that depends upon individualism.”

Facts Reality Truth Politics Individuality Tyranny Individualism Political Systems

Book:On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

Source: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

“Якщо ніхто з нас не готовий загинути за свободу, усі ми загинемо під тиранією.”

Freedom Tyranny

Book:On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century - Graphic Edition

Source: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century - Graphic Edition

“The European history of the twentieth century shows us that societies can break, democracies can fall, ethics can collapse, and ordinary men can find themselves standing over death pits with guns in their hands. It would serve us well today to understand why.”

Past History Democracy Society Ethics Europe Tyranny Fascism Lessons Learned

Book:On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

Source: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

“Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.”

Tyranny Repression Resisting Authoritarianism Obeying Obeying In Advance

Book:On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

Source: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

“The president is a nationalist, which is not at all the same thing as a patriot. A nationalist encourages us to be our worst, and then tells us that we are the best. A nationalist, 'although endlessly brooding on power, victory, defeat, revenge,' wrote Orwell, tends to be 'uninterested in what happens in the real world.' Nationalism is relativist, since the only truth is the resentment we feel when we contemplate others. As the novelist Danilo Kiš put it, nationalism 'has no universal values, aesthetic or ethical.' A patriot, by contrast, wants the nation to live up to its ideals, which means asking us to be our best selves. A patriot must be concerned with the real world, which is the only place where his country can be loved and sustained. A patriot has universal values, standards by which he judges his nation, always wishing it well—and wishing that it would do better.”

Politics Democracy Ideals Tyranny Patriotism Nationalism Authoritarianism George Orwell Nationalists Danilo Kis

Book:On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

Source: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

“What is truth?” Sometimes people ask this question because they wish to do nothing. Generic cynicism makes us feel hip and alternative even as we slip along with our fellow citizens into a morass of indifference. It is your ability to discern facts that makes you an individual, and our collective trust in common knowledge that makes us a society. The individual who investigates is also the citizen who builds. The leader who dislikes the investigators is a potential tyrant.”

Facts Truth Knowledge Society Tyranny Indifference Tyrants Apathy Investigation

Book:On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

Source: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century