Tyranny (n): cruel and oppressive government or rule
Before we dive into the tyranny quotes, let us first ask: Is the United States government tyrannical? Not constantly, no. It is awfully good of the police to arrest perpetrators of property crimes, when they are allowed to, and we’d certainly be happy to see the Coast Guard if we just flipped the official Libertas Bella catamaran 12 miles off the coast of Naples Beach.
But the government does check the tyranny boxes when it wants to. Sentencing a mother of four to 12 years in prison for selling $31 of marijuana is arguably very cruel. (Although we do wonder why she didn’t just charge an even thirty. Maybe she offered seed and stem removal for an extra dollar?) Had the CIA carried out its 1962 plan to commit terrorist attacks in order to drum up support for war against Cuba, the alphabet boys would have acted with exceptional cruelty. And giving me a speeding ticket for doing 62 in a 55 is absolute horse****.
You might also argue that any government which reads its citizens’ private correspondences is oppressive. You could say the same about one which roasts children alive, places its own citizens in concentration camps, codifies racism, and spies on Quakers.
In all fairness, perhaps a government can be tyrannical for the right reasons sometimes. We’re sure a lot of the kids in those concentration camps had direct lines to Hirohito himself.
People who feel obligated to defend the largest and most powerful organization on the face of the planet ought to consider that an abusive father can still make his kids macaroni and cheese for dinner after he has spent the past half hour throwing empty liquor bottles at them. But they’re probably more concerned about getting the taste of boot polish out of their mouths.
Best Tyranny Quotes
– Aristotle
“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.”
– Benjamin Franklin
“Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins. Republics … derive their strength and vigor from a popular examination into the action of the magistrates.”
– Benjamin Franklin
“The right of a nation to kill a tyrant in case of necessity can no more be doubted than to hang a robber, or kill a flea.”
– John Adams
“It is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For they cannot live in any country where virtue and knowledge prevail.”
– Samuel Adams
“All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.”
– George Orwell
“When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.”
– Thomas Jefferson
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
– Thomas Jefferson
“When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”
– Thomas Jefferson
“To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”
– Thomas Jefferson
“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”
– James Madison
“The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resist it.”
– John Hay
“A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.”
– Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.”
– Baron de Montesquieu
“We must beware of a tyranny of opinion which tries to make only one side of a question the one which may be heard.”
– Winston Churchill
“The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.”
– Aesop
“The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.”
– Maximilien Robespierre
“Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down.”
– Frederick Douglass
“The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants.”
– Albert Camus
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.”
– Cicero
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
– C.S. Lewis
“God himself has no right to be a tyrant.”
– William Godwin
“Bad laws are the worst form of tyranny.”
– Edmund Burke
“The tyrant claims freedom to kill freedom, and yet keep it for himself.”
– Rabindranath Tagore
“And why should Caesar be a tyrant then?
Poor man, I know he would not be a wolf,
But that he sees the Romans are but sheep.”
– William Shakespeare
“They’ll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject those voices.”
– Barack Obama
Holy cow! Were those some great tyranny quotes or what? Now, be a good sport and print out this web page to take with you on your upcoming vacation to North Korea.