#despotism

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty. ↗

— George Washington

#party-dissension #party-politics #age

Whatever government is not a government of laws, is a despotism, let it be called what it may. ↗

— Daniel Webster

#despotism #government #laws #may #whatever

Their poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism. ↗

— Edward Gibbon

#despotism #fetters #freedom #our #possessions

The doctrine of blind obedience and unqualified submission to any human power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism, and ought to have no place among Republicans and Christians. ↗

— Angelina Grimke

#any #blind #blind obedience #christians #civil

Despotism is a long crime. ↗

— Victor Hugo

#despotism #long

So long as war is the main business of nations, temporary despotism - despotism during the campaign - is indispensable. ↗

— Walter Bagehot

#campaign #despotism #during #indispensable #long

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

#anywhere #darkness #despotism #done #everywhere

Bureaucracy, the rule of no one, has become the modern form of despotism. ↗

— Mary McCarthy

#bureaucracy #despotism #form #modern #rule

The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement. ↗

— John Stuart Mill

#custom #despotism #everywhere #hindrance #human

Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#force #immediate #parent #principle #vital