#tyranny

Society can and does execute its own mandates: and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ↗

— John Stuart Mill

#philosophy #society #tyranny #life

The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people. ↗

— James Madison

#liberalism #liberty #tyranny #roman

Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and opressions of the body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#jefferson #opression #tyranny #enlightenment

The transition from tyranny to democracy is very hard. The Syrian people have to handle this in a way that works in Syria. And the brutality of the Assad regime is unacceptable. ↗

— Jacob Lew

#democracy #handle #hard #people #regime

Power-lust is a weed that grows only in the vacant lots of an abandoned mind. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#education #power #tyranny #education

Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression. ↗

— Malcolm X

#defense #freedom #greater #oppression #power

I do not deny that I planned sabotage. I did not plan it in a spirit of recklessness nor because I have any love of violence. I planned it as a result of a calm and sober assessment of the political situation that had arisen after many years of tyranny, exploitation and oppression of my people by the whites. ↗

— Nelson Mandela

#any #arisen #assessment #because #calm

I can remember when Democrats believed that it was the duty of America to fight for freedom over tyranny. ↗

— Zell Miller

#america #believed #democrats #duty #fight

There are historic situations in which refusal to defend the inheritance of a civilization, however imperfect, against tyranny and aggression may result in consequences even worse than war. ↗

— Reinhold Niebuhr

#aggression #civilization #consequences #defend #even

It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny. ↗

— James F. Cooper

#democracies #exhibit #form #law #masses