Aesop Quotes
Any excuse will serve a tyrant.
Aesop, 620 BC-560 BC, Greek Author of Fables, The Wolf and the Lamb
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
He was expelled from Parliament for such.
Belafonte was on stage with Hugo Chavez, the autocratic president of Venezuela and a patent demagogue who constantly attacked Bush and the American government. Other than an entertainer who knows little about politics making an over the top attack on the president this quotation is ironic because he was at the time on the stage with and supporting one of the two most autocratic dictators of the Western Hemisphere—Hugo Chavez. In that context, the accusation was as absurd as it can get.
There was a rumor that Napoleon BonaparteII, Emperor of the French, was seriously ill, and when asked what the complaint was, a distinguished foreign guest remarked:
Urging a presidential veto of a tough ethics law prohibiting unethical behavior on the part of government officials:
Madison went on to observe that in a democracy, the real power may reside in the majority of the population, and in such a case the tyranny of the majority is the danger.
Historically, most dictators have announced their worst intentions and in many cases were not believed by much of the world who then learned that they had made a serious error.
Aesop (c. 620–564 BCE) was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as Aesop's Fables. Although his existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a storytelling tradition that continues to this day. Many of the tales are characterized by animals and inanimate objects that speak, solve problems, and generally have human characteristics.
