For all their faults, right-wing authoritarian regimes…

Only religious fanatics and totalitarian states equate morality with legality.

— Linus Torvalds

One thing that all the totalitarian states did was make the great leader's face everywhere.

— Tim Wu

If one holds these high principles clearly before one's eyes, and compares them with the life and spirit of our times, then it appears…

— Albert Einstein

The totalitarian states can do great things, but there is one thing they cannot do: they cannot give the factory-worker a rifle and tell…

— George Orwell

It is often in the name of cultural integrity as well as social stability and national security that democratic reforms based on human rights…

— Aung San Suu Kyi

Our country, like every modern state, needs profound democratic reforms. It needs political and ideological pluralism, a mixed economy and protection of human rights…

— Andrei Sakharov

Throughout history, when societies face tough economic times, we have seen democratic reforms deferred, decreased trust in government, persecution of minority groups, and a…

— Samantha Power

Now the masses of Latin America are electing governments they feel can take forward the democratic reforms of the last 20 years, and transform…

— Carlos Fuentes

It is hard, I submit, to loathe bloodshed, including war, more than I do, but it is still harder to exceed my loathing of…

— Vladimir Nabokov

“Despite the support of all these kings and generals, militarily the Warsaw Pact had a huge numerical superiority over NATO. In order to reach…

— Yuval Noah Harari

“Totalitarian regimes, they declared, all had at least five things in common: a dominant ideology, a single ruling party, a secret police force prepared…

— Anne Applebaum

Totalitarian states killed with impunity and no one was held accountable. That didn't happen in the West.

— John le Carre

“formulated by John Dewey that I express the thought in his words: “The serious threat to our democracy,” he says, “is not the existence…

— Erich Fromm

The Egyptian experience suggests that social media can greatly accelerate the death of already dying authoritarian regimes.

— Evgeny Morozov

“Democracy can exist only in the countries where people are brave! Coward nations always live under the authoritarian regimes!”

— Mehmet Murat ildan