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Despotism Quotes

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Despotism Quotes

“The Greeks made Space the subject-matter of a science of supreme simplicity and certainty. Out of it grew, in the mind of classical antiquity, the idea of pure science. Geometry became one of the most powerful expressions of that sovereignty of the intellect that inspired the thought of those times. At a later epoch, when the intellectual despotism of the Church, which had been maintained through the Middle Ages, had crumbled, and a wave of scepticism threatened to sweep away all that had seemed most fixed, those who believed in Truth clung to Geometry as to a rock, and it was the highest ideal of every scientist to carry on his science 'more geometrico.”

MindMatterTruthScienceBeliefSpacePowerInspireSimplicityIntellectAstronomyThoughtCertaintySkepticismMathematicianPhysicistMiddle AgesGeometryDespotismAntiquityScepticismGreeksAncient GreeksInstitute For Advanced Study
Author:Hermann Weyl
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“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.”

WarIraqIranAfghanistanForeign PolicySyriaNorth KoreaRepressionDespotismIraq WarAntiwar MovementInterventionismForeign Policy Of The UsWar In Afghanistan 2001 PresentAxis Of Evil
Book:A Matter of Principle: Humanitarian Arguments for War in Iraq
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“The fact is that the modern implementation of the prison planet has far surpassed even Orwell’s 1984 and the only difference between our society and those fictionalized by Huxley, Orwell and others, is that the advertising techniques used to package the propaganda are a little more sophisticated on the surface. Yet just a quick glance behind the curtain reveals that the age old tactics of manipulation of fear and manufactured consensus are still being used to force humanity into accepting the terms of its own imprisonment and in turn policing others within the prison without bars.”

FreedomLibertyDespotismWar On TerrorPolice StateHomeland Security1984OrwellBig Brother
Author:Paul Joseph Watson
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“Call no man lucky until he is dead, but there have been moment of rare satisfaction in the often random and fragmented life of the radical freelance scribbler. I have lived to see Ronald Reagan called “a useful idiot for Kremlin propaganda” by his former idolators; to see the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union regarded with fear and suspicion by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (which blacked out an interview with Miloš Forman broadcast live on Moscow TV); to see Mao Zedong relegated like a despot of antiquity. I have also had the extraordinary pleasure of revisiting countries—Greece, Spain, Zimbabwe, and others—that were dictatorships or colonies when first I saw them. Other mini-Reichs have melted like dew, often bringing exiled and imprisoned friends blinking modestly and honorably into the glare. E pur si muove—it still moves, all right.”

FreedomUnited StatesTelevisionRussiaJournalismCommunismLiberationPropagandaDictatorshipColonialismCold War20th CenturySoviet UnionSpainGreeceDespotismMoscowZimbabweCzechoslovakiaMao ZedongPostcolonialismRonald ReaganMilos Forman
Book:Prepared for the Worst: Selected Essays and Minority Reports
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“Some cry out against the majority's despotism that knocks them off their feet and hacks into their fundamental values. Since the unbearable intrusion on their lifestyle's quality frightens them, they are obsessed with losing their integrity through the backlash of an overpowering "democratorship." Spearheading a reconciliation between freethinking and mediation is of supreme importance because mere resentment can be an evil counselor. ("What after bowling alone?" )”

MajorityLifestyleResentmentDespotismMediationIntrusionFreethinkingBowling AloneFundamental ValuesDemocratership
Author:Erik Pevernagie
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“The prevailing opinion among historians, ancient and modern alike, is that the senatorial assassins were intent upon restoring republican liberties by doing away with a despotic usurper. This is the justification offered by the assassins themselves. I present an alternative explanation: The Senate aristocrats killed Caesar because they perceived him to be a popular leader who threatened their privileged interests.”

RepublicDespotismAssassinationPopulismJulius Caesar
Book:The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome
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“This society [Jesuits] has been a greater calamity to mankind than the French Revolution, or Napoleon's despotism or ideology. It has obstructed the progress of reformation and the improvement of the human mind in society much longer and more fatally. {Letter to Thomas Jefferson, November 4, 1816. Adams wrote an anonymous 4 volume work on the destructive history of the Jesuits}”

HistoryCalamityDespotismFrench RevolutionNapoleonThomas JeffersonJesuitsJeffersonNapoleon Bonaparte
Book:The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson & Abigail & John Adams
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“Ve tahtından indirmek istediğiniz bir despotsa söz konusu olan, önce onun içinizde kurulu tahtını ortadan kaldırın. Bir zorba özgür ve gururlu olanlara nasıl hükmedebilir, eğer onların kendi özgürlüklerinde bir zorbalık, kendi gururlarında bir utanç yoksa? Ve üstünüzden atmak istediğiniz bir yükümlülükse söz konusu olan, bu yükümlülük size dayatılmadı, onu siz seçtiniz.”

FreedomDespotismDespotsöZgürlükZorbaTiranZorbalık
Book:The Prophet
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“Auguste Comte, in particular, whose social system, as unfolded in his Systeme de Politique Positive, aims at establishing (though by moral more than by legal appliances) a despotism of society over the individual, surpassing anything contemplated in the political ideal of the most rigid disciplinarian among the ancient philosophers.”

LawPoliticsSocietyMoralityAncientPhilosopherAltruismDespotismPositivismRigidComteJohn Stuart MillAuguste ComteJohn MillSysteme De Politique Positive
Author:John Stuart Mill
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“Suppose that we agree that the two atrocities can or may be mentioned in the same breath. Why should we do so? I wrote at the time (The Nation, October 5, 1998) that Osama bin Laden 'hopes to bring a "judgmental" monotheism of his own to bear on these United States.' Chomsky's recent version of this is 'considering the grievances expressed by people of the Middle East region.' In my version, then as now, one confronts an enemy who wishes ill to our society, and also to his own (if impermeable religious despotism is considered an 'ill'). In Chomsky's reading, one must learn to sift through the inevitable propaganda and emotion resulting from the September 11 attacks, and lend an ear to the suppressed and distorted cry for help that comes, not from the victims, but from the perpetrators. I have already said how distasteful I find this attitude. I wonder if even Chomsky would now like to have some of his own words back? Why else should he take such care to quote himself deploring the atrocity? Nobody accused him of not doing so. It's often a bad sign when people defend themselves against charges which haven't been made.”

WarReligionEmotionUnited StatesIslamTerrorismPropagandaMiddle EastDespotismOsama Bin LadenWar CrimesMonotheismTheocracyIslamic TerrorismSeptember 11 AttacksNoam Chomsky1998The NationAl Shifa Pharmaceutical Factory
Book:Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq, and the Left
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“The right-wing Tories and the conservative Whigs fought Napoleon as the Usurper and the Enemy of the Established Order; the liberal Tories and the radical Whigs fought him as the Betrayer of the Revolution and the Enslaver of Europe; they were all agreed in fighting him, and his notion that their disagreement signified national disunion was mere wishful thinking. All dictators since his time have fallen into the same trap: themselves blind to the values of liberty, they cannot conceive that people who disagree on its meaning can nevertheless unite in upholding their freedoms against patent despotism.”

LibertyDespotismNapoleonNapoleonic WarsToriesWhigs
Book:The Age of Napoleon
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“History has seen many who claim to be deliverer and saviour of the people. They might come with force and violence and parade their might and splendour as conquerors. The pharaohs of Egypt, Sennacherib king of Assyria, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Darius of Persia, Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Napoleon, Clive of India, Bismarck, the Kaiser, Hitler, Stalin. The story and scene is always the same. They claim to deliver the people from bondage and to establish justice, freedom and peace. They come in might, riding in splendour, dragging prisoners.”

MightTruthReligionHopePoliticsPeaceJusticeHistoryActivismCrueltyLeadersTyrantsRulersTotalitarianismDespotismDeliveranceConquerorHitlerDespotsStalinDariusBismarckSavioursNebuchadnezzarJohn MyerReverend John MyerSennacherib
Book:John Myer: A Collection of his Sermons and Writing, #1
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“Moral decay first hampers and then strangles honest government, regular commerce, and even the ability to take genuine pleasure in the goods of this world. Compulsion is applied from above as self-discipline relaxes below, and the last liberties expire under the weight of a unitary state.... Since religion has lost its empire over the souls of men, the most prominent boundary that divided good from evil is overthrown; kings and nations are guided by chance and none can say where are the natural limits of despotism and the bound of license.”

MenWorldFirstsSoulSelfStatesGovernmentLastsEvilLostNationsNaturalChanceAbilityPleasureLibertyMoralHonestThis WorldKingsDisciplineLimitsWeightBoundsCorruptionBoundariesGenuineRelaxEmpiresGoodsDividedDecayCommerceSelf DisciplineLicenseCompulsionDespotismProminentHamperMoral DecayHonest Government
Author:Russell Kirk
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“The free-trade idea, logically applied, will abolish usury; and with usury will disappear the chief bone of contention between labor and capital. But, just at this point, free-traders go over to the enemy; and many writers on political economy, in flat contradiction of the essential principles of that science, have made elaborate arguments to prove self-government in finance, impossible! What shall we think of men who, having dethroned kings, demolished popes, destroyed slave oligarchies and assailed tariff monopoly, advise submission to the most oppressive and dishonest of despotisms, Usury?”

ThinkingMenMadeIdeasSelfGovernmentPoliticalEnemyPrinciplesEconomyImpossibleKingsProveEssentialsArgumentLaborTradeSlaveBonesDisappearFinanceDestroyedChiefsContradictionFlatsPopeSubmissionMonopolyAdviseDespotismAbolishThink Of MeContentionFree TradeTradersOligarchySelf-governmentTariffsPolitical EconomyUsuryLabor And Capital
Author:Ezra Heywood
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“All education is despotism. It is perhaps impossible for the young to be conducted without introducing in many cases the tyranny implicit in obedience. Go there; do that; read; write; rise; lie down - will perhaps forever be the language addressed to youth by age.”

WritingAgeYoungLyingLanguageCasesForeverImpossibleYouthTyrannyObedienceIntroducingDespotismImplicit
Book:The enquirer. Reflections on education, manners, and literature. In a series of essays
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“During the last dozen years the tales of suppression of free assemblage, free press, and free speech, by local authorities or the State operating under martial law have been so numerous as to have become an old story. They are attacked at the instigation of an economically and socially powerful class, itself enjoying to the full the advantages of free communications, but bent on denying them to the class it holds within its power.”

YearsHas BeensWarStatesStoriesLastsLawEnjoyPowerfulClassPowerMilitaryCommunicationSpeechAuthorityAdvantageEconomicsConstitutionPressesLocalsTalesOppressionDozenFree SpeechBentDespotismSuppressionFree PressAssemblageMartial Law
Author:Edward Alsworth Ross
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“As it was 189 years ago, so today the cause of America is a revolutionary cause. And I am proud this morning to salute you as fellow revolutionaries. Neither you nor I are willing to accept the tyranny of poverty, nor the dictatorship of ignorance, nor the despotism of ill health, nor the oppression of bias and prejudice and bigotry. We want change. We want progress. We want it both abroad and at homeand we aim to get it.”

WantYearsTodayAmericaCausesAcceptingPovertyMorningProgressIgnoranceWillingProudYears AgoPrejudiceAimFellowsIllTyrannyOppressionRevolutionaryBigotryDictatorshipBiasDespotismSaluteIll HealthBias And Prejudice
Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
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“Liberty ... was a two-headed boon. There was first, the liberty of the people as a whole to determine the forms of their own government, to levy their own taxes, and to make their own laws.... There was second, the liberty of the individual man to live his own life, within the limits of decency and decorum, as he pleased -- freedom from the despotism of the majority.”

PeopleMenFirstsTwoWholeGovernmentFormLawIndividualJusticeLibertyHonorLimitsTaxesMajorityDetermineIndividualismTaxationDecencyDespotismBoonDecorum
Book:Alexander Hamilton: Lapham's Quarterly - Special Issue
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“The right to discuss freely and openly, by speech, by the pen, by the press, all political questions, and to examine the animadvert upon all political institutions is a right so clear and certain, so interwoven with our other liberties, so necessary, in fact, to their existence, that without it we must fall into despotism and anarchy.”

FactsPoliticalCertainFallExistenceLibertyClearSpeechConstitutionInstitutionsPressesPensAnarchyDespotismPolitical Institutions
Author:William C. Bryant
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“A state too expensive in itself, or by virtue of its dependencies, ultimately falls into decay; its free government is transformed into a tyranny; it disregards the principles which it should preserve, and finally degenerates into despotism. The distinguishing characteristic of small republics is stability: the character of large republics is mutability.”

ShouldStatesCharacterGovernmentFallPrinciplesVirtueTyrannyPreservesCharacteristicsExpensiveRepublicStabilityTransformedDecayDisregardDespotismDegeneratesDependencyFree GovernmentMutability
Author:Simon Bolivar
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“A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity is impossible. The rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left.”

PeopleDoeFormLeftOpinionPrinciplesImpossibleMajorityChecksLimitationPermanentMinoritiesRejectsSentimentsAnarchyArrangementsSovereignRestraintDeliberateDespotismRejectingPopular OpinionUnanimity
Book:Abraham Lincoln: Speeches & Writings Part 2: 1859-1865: Library of America #46
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“Perhaps a revolution can overthrow autocratic despotism and profiteering or power-grabbing oppression, but it can never truly reform a manner of thinking; instead, new prejudices, just like the old ones they replace, will serve as a leash for the great unthinking mass.”

ThinkingRevolutionMassPrejudiceOppressionReformDespotismGrabbingLeashes
Book:Perpetual Peace and Other Essays: on Politics, History, and Morals
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