Randy Cohen Quotes

It is not good to have a rule of many.

There's a certain amount of tyranny in all of us to some extent, and in some people it's much more developed than in others. It's a different balance which makes us all different.

All men would be tyrants if they could.

The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.

If Bangladesh succumbs to the rule of one family, it would be a major step backward for the region.

Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.

A state is not a state if it belongs to one man.

It is certainly not the most democratic way to proceed.

Which is better, to be ruled by one tyrant three thousand miles away, or by three thousand tyrants not a mile away?

... timid men who prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty.

A government is said to preserve order if it succeeds in getting itself obeyed. But there are different degrees of obedience, and it is not every degree that is commendable. Only an unmitigated despotism demands that the individual citizen shall obey unconditionally every mandate of persons in authority.

… the tools of despotism and corruption

To trample democracy with one’s feet and to give power to a single man over almost eighty million people is so terrible that one can very probably tremble over the events which will come here.

Given the right conditions any society can turn against democracy.

A king ruleth as he ought, a tyrant as he lists, a king to the profit of all, a tyrant only to please a few.

Whether it comes from a despotic sovereign or an elected president, from a murderous general or a beloved leader, I see power as an inhuman and hateful phenomen. To the same degree that I do not understand power, I do understand those who oppose power, who criticize power, who contest power, especially those who rebel against power imposed by brutality.

Despotism subjects a nation to one tyrant; democracy, to many.

The doctrine of blind obedience and unqualified submission to any human power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism, and ought to have no place among Republicans and Christians.

If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.

Any excuse will serve a tyrant.

The chains of military despotism, once fastened upon a nation, ages might pass away before they could be shaken off.

The ancients understood the regulation of power better than the regulation of liberty.

If monarchy is corrupting - and it is - wait till you see what overt empire does to us.

An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger.

Secrecy is the freedom tyrants dream of.