Fyodor Dostoevsky
Novelist, Philosopher
"To begin with unlimited freedom is to end with unlimited despotism."
Despotism quotes
Despotism
35 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
John Stuart Mill
Philosopher, Political Economist
"The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement."
Abraham Lincoln
Political Leader
"As a nation we began by declaring that all me are created equal. We now practically read it, all men are created equal except Negroes."
Charlie Chaplin
Actor, Filmmaker, Composer
"Have them all shot. I don't want any of my workers dissatisfied."
Thomas Carlyle
Essayist, Historian, Novelist
"France was long a despotism tempered by epigrams."
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Despotism quotes (page 1 of 2)
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"The leading princes are the most servile tools of English despotism. . . . The native princes are the stronghold of the present abominable English system."
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"There was one species of despotism under which he had long groaned, and that was petticoat government."
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"Nothing renders a nation so despicable as religious despotism."
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"What a triumph for the advocates of despotism to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves, and that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are merely ideal and fallacious."
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"Despotism is a long crime."
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"Man is about the same, in the main, whether with despotism, or whether with freedom."
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"Military despotism represses generous sentiments, priestly tyranny stifles them."
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"The despotism of custom is on the wane. We are not content to know that things are; we ask whether they ought to be."
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"Despotism accomplishes great things illegally; liberty doesn't even go to the trouble of accomplishing small things legally."
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