William Wells Brown Quotes

I've played so many historical characters because most horrible dictators are short, fat, middle-aged men.

In domestic as in political tyranny, the case of absolute monsters chiefly illustrates the institution by showing that there is scarcely any horror which may not occur under it if the despot pleases

Erdogon has become so paranoid, so power-hungry, he doesn't even allow institutions to flourish. It has become a one-man show.

That's how dictators get started.

Enlightened despots are mythical creatures; real despots seem more interested in stealing money or installing their sons after them.

Every one of the world's dictatorships can and does claim to be acting in the name of the people.

Every tyrant who has lived has believed in freedom for himself.

Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.

This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.

You look at the greatest villains in human history, the fascists, the autocrats, they all wanted people to kneel before them because they don't love themselves enough.

Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.

Despotism isn't nearly as bad as it's cracked up to be.

The love of domination and an uncontrolled lust of arbitrary power have prevailed among all nations and perhaps in proportion to the degrees of civilization.

I've met quite a few dictators up close and personal in my life.

Dictators are ludicrous characters, and, you know, in my career and in my life, I've always enjoyed sort of inhabiting these ludicrous, larger-than-life characters that somehow exist in the real world.

... all of our human experience shows that no one with absolute power can be trusted to give it up even in part.

If you give human beings power over others, their natural tendency is to be fascists.

In an absolute government there can be no... equiponderant parties. The despot is the government.

One Hundred and Seventy Three Despots would surely be as oppressive as one.

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.

It is a favorite maxim of despotick power, that mankind are not made to govern themselves.

Every dictatorship creates thousands of smaller dictators who live on for decades.

We have tended to be comfortable with authoritarian regimes.

President Maliki: The appetite has grown with the eating. He has become a real dictator.

Colonel Qaddafi's tyranny was absolutist, monarchical, and personal. The problem with such dictatorships is that as long as the tyrant lives, he reigns and terrorizes.