#tyranny

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

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. ↗

— Samuel Adams

#tyranny #freedom

Rebellion to tyranny is obedience to God. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#oppression #tyranny #freedom

What are the present governments of Europe, but a scene of iniquity and oppression? What is that of England? Do not its own inhabitants say, It is a market where every man has his price, and where corruption is common traffic, at the expense of a deluded people? No wonder, then, that the French Revolution is traduced. ↗

— Thomas Paine

#freedom #porup #tyranny #freedom

Those who are capable of tyranny are capable of perjury to sustain it. ↗

— Lysander Spooner

#media #propaganda #tyranny #media

Monarchies have some good features beyond their star qualities. They can reduce the size and parasitic nature of the management bureaucracy. They can make speedy decisions when necessary. They fit an ancient human demand for a parental (tribal/feudal) hierarchy where every person knows his place. It is valuable to know your place, even if that place is temporary. It is galling to be held in place against your will. This is why I teach about tyranny in the best possible way—by example. ↗

— Frank Herbert

#tyranny #nature

The distrust of wit is the beginning of tyranny. ↗

— Edward Abbey

#oppression #subversion #totalitarianism #tyranny #wit

I shall earnestly and persistently continue to urge all women to the practical recognition of the old Revolutionary maxim. Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God. ↗

— Susan B. Anthony

#earnestly #god #i #maxim #obedience

You may talk of the tyranny of Nero and Tiberius; but the real tyranny is the tyranny of your next-door neighbor. ↗

— Walter Bagehot

#neighbor #next-door #next-door neighbor #real #talk

Political tyranny is nothing compared to the social tyranny and a reformer who defies society is a more courageous man than a politician who defies Government. ↗

— B. R. Ambedkar

#courageous #defies #government #man #more