#dictators

Every one of the world's dictatorships can and does claim to be acting in the name of the people. ↗

— Harold H. Greene

#claim #dictatorships #does #every #name

A test of a people is how it behaves toward the old. It is easy to love children. Even tyrants and dictators make a point of being fond of children. But the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of a culture. ↗

— Abraham Joshua Heschel

#behaves #being #care #children #culture

I can remember when I was a bit of an ETA fan myself. It was in 1973, when a group of Basque militants assassinated Adm. Carrero Blanco. The admiral was a stone-faced secret police chief, personally groomed to be the successor to the decrepit Francisco Franco. His car blew up, killing only him and his chauffeur with a carefully planted charge, and not only was the world well rid of another fascist, but, more important, the whole scheme of extending Franco's rule was vaporized in the same instant. The dictator had to turn instead to Crown Prince Juan Carlos, who turned out to be the best Bourbon in history and who swiftly dismantled Franco's entire system. If this action was 'terrorism,' it had something to be said for it. Everyone I knew in Spain made a little holiday in their hearts when the gruesome admiral went sky-high. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#dictatorship

Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear. ↗

— Alan Coren

#choosing #consists #democracy #dictators #hear

Look, words are like the air: they belong to everybody. Words are not the problem; it's the tone, the context, where those words are aimed, and in whose company they are uttered. Of course murderers and victims use the same words, but I never read the words utopia, or beauty, or tenderness in police descriptions. Do you know that the Argentinean dictatorship burnt The Little Prince ? And I think they were right to do so, not because I do not love The Little Prince , but because the book is so full of tenderness that it would harm any dictatorship. ↗

— Juan Gelman

#the-little-prince #words #beauty

The United States condoned dictatorships in Latin America for much of the 20th century. ↗

— Carlos Fuentes

#america #century #dictatorships #latin #latin america

I believe in benevolent dictatorship provided I am the dictator. ↗

— Richard Branson

#believe #benevolent #dictator #dictatorship #i

Jazz is about freedom within discipline. Usually a dictatorship like in Russia and Germany will prevent jazz from being played because it just seemed to represent freedom, democracy and the United States. ↗

— Dave Brubeck

#because #being #democracy #dictatorship #discipline

Hitler's dictatorship rested on the constitutional foundation of a single law, the Enabling Law. ↗

— Alan Bullock

#dictatorship #enabling #foundation #hitler #law

Dictators never invent their own opportunities. ↗

— R. Buckminster Fuller

#invent #never #opportunities #own #their