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Totalitarianism Quotes

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Totalitarianism Quotes

“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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“The driving force behind today's terrorist threat is Islamist fundamentalism. The struggle we are engaged in is, at root, ideological. During the last century a strain of Islamist thinking has developed which, like other totalitarianisms, such as Nazism and Communism, offers its followers a form of redemption through violence.”

ThinkingTodayLastsFormReligionForceBehindsStruggleViolenceCenturyOffersRootsThreatDrivingTerroristRedemptionCommunismEngagedFollowersFundamentalismNaziStrainTotalitarianismIdeologicalIsmsDriving ForceIslamists
Author:David Cameron
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“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?”

InspirationalDoeWarPoliticalPoliticsNamesPeaceDifferencesLibertyDemocracyHolyDestructionMadAnti WarAntiwarHomelessTotalitarianismOrphanPeace WarDemocracies HaveGreat WarPeace And JusticeElection DayMake Peace Not WarJust WarVoting And DemocracyWar VeteranPolitics And WarWidows And OrphansPerpetual War
Author:Mahatma Gandhi
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“Isn't our choice really not one of left or right, but of up or down? Down through the welfare state to statism, to more and more government largesse accompanied always by more government authority, less individual liberty, and ultimately, totalitarianism, always advanced as for our own good. The alternative is the dream conceived by our Founding Fathers, up to the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with an orderly society.”

StatesDreamGovernmentChoicesFatherIndividualLeftLibertyAuthorityUltimateConstitutionAlternativesWelfareConsistentFoundingTotalitarianismOur Founding FathersOrderlyOur ChoicesWelfare StateIndividual LibertyIndividual FreedomLargesse
Book:Speaking my mind: selected speeches
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“Look, America is no more a democracy than Russia is a Communist state. The governments of the U.S. and Russia are practically the same. There's only a difference of degree. We both have the same basic form of government: economic totalitarianism. In other words, the settlement to all questions, the solutions to all issues are determined not by what will make the people most healthy and happy in their bodies and their minds but by economics. Dollars or rubles.”

PeopleMindLooksStatesBodyGovernmentAmericaFormDifferencesDemocracyIssuesEconomicHealthyDegreesSolutionsEconomicsDollarsDeterminedRussiaCommunistTotalitarianismForms Of GovernmentSettlementHealthy And Happy
Book:Another Roadside Attraction
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“As long as human beings are imperfect, there will always be arguments for extending the power of government to deal with these imperfections. The only logical stopping place is totalitarianism -- unless we realize that tolerating imperfections is the price of freedom.”

HumansLongGovernmentRealizingHuman BeingsDealsArgumentLogicalImperfectionImperfectStoppingTotalitarianismExtendingPrice Of Freedom
Book:Ever Wonder Why?: and Other Controversial Essays
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“The Western world generally has lost the concept of man as a creature made to the image and likeness of God, and reduced him either to a component part of the universe, to an economic animal or to a "physiological bag filled with psychological libido." Once man became materialized and atomized in Western thinking, it was only natural for a totalitarianism to arise to gather up the fragments into a new totality and substitute the collective man for the individual man who was isolated from all social responsibilities.”

ThinkingMenWorldMadeWisdomUniversePoliticsIndividualLostSocialNaturalAnimalResponsibilityEconomyEconomicCreaturesConceptsFilledWesternArisePsychologicalLiberalismBagsCollectivesSubstitutesIsolatedSocial ResponsibilityComponentsFragmentsTotalitarianismTotalityWestern WorldPhysiologicalLibido
Author:Fulton J. Sheen
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“Totalitarianism, however, does not so much promise an age of faith as an age of schizophrenia. A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial: that is, when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud. Such a society, no matter how long it persists, can never afford to become either tolerant or intellectually stable.”

LongDoeMatterFactsRunningAgePastLostForceExistenceClassPromiseSucceedDemandFunctionStructureObjectivesFraudArtificialStableLong RunsPersistRulingTotalitarianismDisbeliefClingingSchizophreniaAlterationsObjective Truth
Author:George Orwell
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“Religion, a mediaeval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms. This religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today. I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity. 'Respect for religion' has become a code phrase meaning 'fear of religion.' Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.”

HeartArtIdeasRealTodayFormForceReligiousLibertyModernDeserveConsequenceCriticismThreatIslamStupidityTyrannyFearlessCodeParisPhrasesTragicSatireTotalitarianismDishonestyCharlieDisrespectMutationWeaponryCharlie Hebdo
Author:Salman Rushdie
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“Collective bargaining has always been the bedrock of the American labor movement. I hope that you will continue to anchor your movement to this foundation. Free collective bargaining is good for the entire Nation. In my view, it is the only alternative to State regulation of wages and prices - a path which leads far down the grim road of totalitarianism. Those who would destroy or further limit the rights of organized labor - those who would cripple collective bargaining or prevent organization of the unorganized - do a disservice to the cause of democracy.”

StatesNationsCausesViewsDemocracyPathRightsMovementLimitsLaborOrganizationFoundationAlternativesOrganizedCollectivesRegulationWagesTotalitarianismAnchorsGrimCripplesBargainingBedrockDisserviceLabor MovementOrganized LaborCollective Bargaining
Author:John F. Kennedy
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“The Iraqi Baath Socialist Party was modelled in large part on admiration for European National Socialist and Fascist movements, hoped to emulate them especially in their nationalism against the West. But mutated by Saddam Hussein it became also one that very, very much admired, and grew a special moustache in admiration of the work of Yosif Vissarionovitch Dzugashvili, the great Georgian known to us historically as Stalin. So you had him in modern Iraq, a regime in our own time, that was openly, directly modelled upon the two most extreme examples of European totalitarianism.”

TwoPartyKnownModernSpecialExampleMovementGrewWestIraqExtremesNationalismAdmirationRegimesSocialistSaddamHusseinTotalitarianismFascistsEmulateMoustacheSocialist PartyGeorgians
Author:Christopher Hitchens
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“Hannah Arendt in her study of totalitarianism borrowed from Immanuel Kant the concept of radical evil, of evil that's so evil that in the end it destroys itself, it's so committed to evil and it's so committed to hatred and cruelty that it becomes suicidal. My definition of it is the surplus value that's generated by totalitarianism. It means you do more violence, more cruelty than you absolutely have to to stay in power.”

MeanEndsValuesEvilStudyViolenceConceptsHatredDefinitionsCommittedCrueltyRadicalSuicidalTotalitarianismBorrowedSurplus
Author:Christopher Hitchens
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“The presumption that the law can tell us what natural institution is supposed to be is a formula for totalitarianism. There's not equality in a family; there never is. And yet for that reason, the family is condemned as patriarchal. The goal of this sort of legislation is about the destruction of the traditional family, not just marriage.”

ReasonLawGoalNaturalDestructionInstitutionsTraditionalSupposed To BeFormulasLegislationTotalitarianismPresumptionTraditional Family
Author:Francis George
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“Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth. By simply not mentioning certain subjects... totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have by the most eloquent denunciations.”

StillsTruthCertainViewsSilenceOpinionGreaterSubjectsPoint Of ViewPracticalsTotalitarianismEloquentPropagandistBrave New World Technology
Book:The Collected Works of Aldous Huxley: Brave new world
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“Totalitarianism is neither left nor right, and within its empire both will perish. I was never a believer, but after seeing Czech Catholics persecuted during the Stalinist terror, I felt the deepest solidarity with them. What separated us, the belief in God, was secondary to what united us. In Prague, they hanged the Socialists and the priests. Thus a fraternity of the hanged was born.”

BeliefLeftFeltBornUnitedSeeingCatholicTerrorBelieverEmpiresPriestsSolidarityTotalitarianismPersecutedBelief In GodFraternityCzechPrague
Author:Milan Kundera
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“The truth of literature and art has always been granted (if it was granted at all) as one of a "higher" order, which should not and indeed did not disturb the order of business. What has changed in the contemporary period is the difference between the two orders and their truths. The absorbent power of society depletes the artistic dimension by assimilating its antagonistic contents. In the realm of culture, the new totalitarianism manifests itself precisely in a harmonizing pluralism, where the most contradictory works and truths peacefully coexist in indifference.”

ShouldArtTwoOrderCultureLiteratureDifferencesChangedHigherPeriodsContemporaryGrantedArtisticIndifferenceRealmsDimensionsContradictoryTotalitarianismCoexistPluralismLiterature And Art
Author:Herbert Marcuse
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“I have seen the rise and fall of Nazi tyranny, the subsequent cold war and the nuclear nightmare that for fifty years haunted the dreams of children everywhere. During that time my generation defeated totalitarianism. As a result, your world is poised for better tomorrows. What will you do on your journey?”

WorldYearsChildrenWarDreamFallResultsGenerationsJourneyColdTomorrowNuclearTyrannyFiftyNightmareDefeatedCold WarNaziTotalitarianismMy GenerationRise And FallBetter Tomorrow
Author:Ronald Reagan
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“My links with [Mahatma] Gandhi now are very political links because I do not believe there is any other politics available to us in the late twentieth century, a period of a totalitarianism linked with the market. There is really no other way you can do politics and create freedom for people without the kinds of instruments he revived. Civil disobedience is a way to create permanent democracy, perennial democracy, a direct democracy.”

PeopleWayBelieveKindPoliticalCan DoDemocracyCenturyPeriodsLateDirectInstrumentsAvailablePermanentLinksLinkedTwentieth CenturyTotalitarianismDisobedienceCivil DisobedienceDirect Democracy
Author:Vandana Shiva
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“I was interested in the ways that artists responded to totalitarianism - the Czech Jazz Section, Romanian absurdist theatre, Brecht's alienation effect. The anything-goes, anarchic qualities of jazz and Surrealism seemed to offer a way to cross some of the forbidden frontiers of Eastern Europe.”

WayArtistQualityEffectsOffersEuropeCrossesJazzTheatreSectionsEasternForbiddenAlienationFrontiersTotalitarianismSurrealismEastern EuropeCzechAnything GoesBrecht
Author:Nicholas Royle
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