Despotism Quote by Elizabeth Gaskell

At a distance, we cannot conceive of the authority of a despot who knows all his subjects on sight.

— Stendhal

When the savages of Louisiana wish to have fruit, they cut the tree at the bottom and gather the fruit. That is exactly a…

— Baron de Montesquieu

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it…

— Anonymous

Neither should men study war with a view to the enslavement of those who do not deserve to be enslaved; but first of all…

— Aristotle

Liberty ... was a two-headed boon. There was first, the liberty of the people as a whole to determine the forms of their own…

— H. L. Mencken

Generally, I like all islands. There, it is easier to rule.

— Albert Camus

A court which yields to the popular will thereby licenses itself to practice despotism, for there can be no assurance that it will not,…

— Felix Frankfurter

Despotism often presents itself as the repairer of all the ills suffered, the support of just rights, defender of the oppressed, and founder of…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

“All despotism is bad; but the worst is that which works with the machinery of freedom.”

— Junius

“No longer enslaved or made dependent by force of law, the great majority are so by force of poverty; they are still chained to…

— John Stuart Mill

If Despotism failed only for want of a capable benevolent despot, what chance has Democracy, which requires a whole population of capable voters.

— George Bernard Shaw

There are, after all, atheists who say they wish the fable were true but are unable to suspend the requisite disbelief, or who have…

— Christopher Hitchens