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So long as war
is the main business of nations, temporary despotism --
despotism during the campaign -- is indispensable.
-- Walter Bagehot
1826-1877, British Economist,
Critic
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
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
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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The real
stumbling-block of totalitarian régimes 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
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
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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