Despotism

(237 votes)   Despots play their part in the works of thinkers. Fettered words are terrible words. The writer doubles and trebles the power of his writing when a ruler imposes silence on the people. Something emerges from that enforced silence, a mysterious fullness which filters through and becomes steely in the thought. Repression in history leads to conciseness in the historian, and the rocklike hardness of much celebrated prose is due to the tempering of the tyrant.

Victor Hugo
1802-1885, French Poet, Dramatist, Novelist

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(134 votes)   The arbitrary rule of a just and enlightened prince is always bad. His virtues are the most dangerous and the surest form of seduction: they lull a people imperceptibly into the habit of loving, respecting, and serving his successor, whoever that successor may be, no matter how wicked or stupid.

Denis Diderot
1713-1784, French Philosopher

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(120 votes)   Man is insatiable for power; he is infantile in his desires and, always discontented with what he has, loves only what he has not. People complain of the despotism of princes; they ought to complain of the despotism of man.

Joseph De Maistre
1753-1821, French Diplomat, Philosopher

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(119 votes)   The real stumbling-block of totalitarian rTgimes is not the spiritual need of men for freedom of thought; it is men's inability to stand the physical and nervous strain of a permanent state of excitement, except during a few years of their youth.

Simone Weil
1910-1943, French Philosopher, Mystic

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(113 votes)   There are three kinds of despots. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the body. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul and body alike. The first is called the Prince. The second is called the Pope. The third is called the People.

Oscar Wilde
1856-1900, British Author, Wit

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(103 votes)   Despotism is unjust to everybody, including the despot, who was probably made for better things.

Oscar Wilde
1856-1900, British Author, Wit

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