#despot

As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy. ↗

— Abraham Lincoln

#bigotry #despotism #equality #hypocrisy #know-nothings

Despotism can only exist in darkness, and there are too many lights now in the political firmament, to permit it to remain anywhere, as it has heretofore done, almost everywhere. ↗

— James Madison

#freedom #freedom

Despots prefer the friendship of the dog, who, unjustly mistreated and debased, still loves and serves the man who wronged him. ↗

— Charles Fourier

#government #liberty #poltics #tyrants #friendship

I love my country, not my government. ↗

— Jesse Ventura

#bill-of-rights #constitution #despotism #freedom #government

If there were only one religion in England there would be danger of despotism, if there were two, they would cut each other's throats, but there are thirty, and they live in peace and happiness. ↗

— Voltaire

#religion #religion

Despotic governments can stand 'moral force' till the cows come home; what they fear is physical force. ↗

— George Orwell

#dictatorship #interventionism #pacifism #totalitarianism #war

Neither a life of anarchy nor one beneath a despot should you praise; to all that lies in the middle a god has given excellence. ↗

— Aeschylus

#beneath #despot #excellence #given #god