Tyrants Quotes: Insights on Tyranny and Power

"There can be no tyrants where there are no slaves"

Jose Rizal, Writer

"The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants"

Albert Camus, Philosopher

"Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants"

William Penn, Leader

"The mob is the mother of tyrants"

Diogenes, Philosopher

"Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God"

Benjamin Franklin, Politician

"The tree of liberty needs to be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants"

Lyn Nofziger

"One weeps not save when one is afraid, and that is why kings are tyrants"

Marquis de Sade, Novelist

"Clever tyrants are never punished"

Voltaire, Writer

"War kills men, and men deplore the loss; but war also crushes bad principles and tyrants, and so saves societies"

Charles Caleb Colton, Writer

"A test of a people is how it behaves toward the old. It is easy to love children. Even tyrants and dictators make a point of being fond of children. But the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of a culture"

Abraham Joshua Heschel, Educator

"Friendship is a disinterested commerce between equals; love, an abject intercourse between tyrants and slaves"

Oliver Goldsmith, Poet

"Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them"

Voltaire, Writer

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants"

Thomas Jefferson, President

"Tyrants have not yet discovered any chains that can fetter the mind"

Charles Caleb Colton, Writer

"Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart; nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants"

Edmund Burke, Statesman

"Tyrants seldom want pretexts"

Edmund Burke, Statesman

"Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle"

Edmund Burke, Statesman

"Ronald Reagan said that he sought a Star Wars defense only in order to share the technology with the tyrants of the U.S.S.R"

Christopher Hitchens, Author

"Everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear"

George W. Bush, President

"May the Lord destroy all the tyrants of the church. Amen"

Michael Servetus, Scientist

"Then I despair... I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall. Think of it always"

Andre Malraux, Author

"The world is made up for the most part of morons and natural tyrants, sure of themselves, strong in their own opinions, never doubting anything"

Clarence Darrow, Lawyer

"Secrecy is the freedom tyrants dream of"

Bill Moyers, Journalist

"Common tyrants, and public oppressors, are not intitled to obedience from their subjects, by virtue of any thing here laid down by the inspired apostle"

Jonathan Mayhew, Clergyman

"It is a violation which has obsessed the tyrants of the twentieth century. They do not want simply to kill their opponents, but to liquidate them, to deny that they have ever existed"

Helen Dunmore, Poet

"The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppose"

Frederick Douglass, Author

"In Russia all tyrants believe poets to be their worst enemies"

Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Poet

"All men would be tyrants if they could"

Daniel Defoe, Journalist

"Nature has left this tincture in the blood, That all men would be tyrants if they could"

Daniel Defoe, Journalist

"Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could"

Abigail Adams, First Lady

"Of all the tyrants the world affords, our own affections are the fiercest lords"

John Sterling, Entertainer

"Let tyrants shake their iron rod"

William Billings, Composer

"The "Axis of Evil" was - and is - very real, as the tyrants of Iran, Iraq, and North Korea knew full well"

Michael Ledeen, Writer

"Few governments in the world, for example, praise human rights more ardently than does the government of France, and few have a worse record of supporting tyrants and killers"

Richard Perle, Public Servant

"With reasonable men, I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost"

William Lloyd Garrison, Journalist

"The big tyrants never face justice"

George Galloway, Politician

"Excessive dealings with tyrants are not good for the security of free states"

Demosthenes, Statesman

"It is no coincidence that the growth of modern tyrants has in every case been heralded by the growth of prejudice"

Henry A. Wallace, Vice President

"You work your butt off and somebody says you can't have your record played because it offends them. Tyrants are made of such stuff"

Richard Pryor, Actor