Culture Quote by John Stuart Mill

The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement.

— John Stuart Mill

The despotism of custom is on the wane. We are not content to know that things are; we ask whether they ought to be.

— John Stuart Mill

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

“Specialization is undeniably a powerful social and economic force. And yet it is also debilitating. It breeds helplessness, dependence, and ignorance and, eventually, it…

— Michael Pollan

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

— Junius

The progress of despotism tends to disappoint its own purpose.

— Edward Gibbon

“At the same time, however, the necessity for economic change in our countries has led us to conceive laws and accept traditions often at…

— Jean Vanier

Custom governs the world; it is the tyrant of our feelings and our manners and rules the world with the hand of a despot.

— Bill Vaughan

A people among whom custom is altogether sovereign endures the despotism of the dead.

— Bertrand de Jouvenel

Bureaucracy, the rule of no one, has become the modern form of despotism.

— Mary McCarthy

“Despotism may be the only organizational alternative to the political structure that we observe.”

— James M. Buchanan

“The nation which will not adopt an equilibrium of power must adopt a despotism. There is no other alternative.”

— John Adams