Arbitrary Quote by Friedrich August von Hayek

Democracy passes into despotism.

— Plato

“Unlimited power is the ideal thing when it is in safe hands. The despotism of heaven is the one absolutely perfect government, and earthly…

— Mark Twain

Whatever government is not a government of laws, is a despotism, let it be called what it may.

— Daniel Webster

Democracy is necessarily despotism, as it establishes an executive power contrary to the general will; all being able to decide against one whose opinion…

— Immanuel Kant

Despotism subjects a nation to one tyrant; democracy, to many.

— Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington

“In a democracy, there is no check against despotism, because the principle of democracy is supposed to be itself a check. But it guarantees…

— B.F. Skinner

Any government, that is its own judge of, and determines authoritatively for the people, what are its own powers over the people, is an…

— Lysander Spooner

Democracy has two excesses to avoid: the spirit of inequality, which leads to an aristocracy, or to the government of a single individual; and…

— Baron de Montesquieu

In a despotic government, the only principle by which the tyrant who is to move the whole machine means to regulate and manage the…

— Samuel Williams

Even the most despotic government cannot stand except for the consent of the governed… Immediately the subject ceases to fear the despotic force, his…

— Mahatma Gandhi

What a triumph for the advocates of despotism to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves, and that systems founded on the basis…

— George Washington

As a general rule, governments are unlimited in their powers. All free governments, perhaps all other governments, are entitled in some shape or other…

— Samuel Freeman Miller