Pete Hoekstra Quotes

Spineless politics do not change the mind of a tyrant.

Sometimes I think that a parody of democracy could be more dangerous than a blatant dictatorship, because that gives people an opportunity to avoid doing anything about it.

If Saddam were to be replaced tomorrow he would probably be replaced with someone who's just as bad or worse than he is.

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

We have a war dictator who was not elected, he snuck in. so he punishes people that threaten him in any way, or even say something he doesn't like. It has no resemblance to democracy.

Military dictatorship, you can focus on it, you can fight it directly. It's a band of power-driven people.

The more complete the despotism, the more smoothly all things move on the surface.

I've had meetings with Fidel Castro. I've had meetings with Kim Il-Sung. I've had meetings with other dictators. I've met with the Butcher of Beijing. You know, I think it's important to hear, you know, each other's perspective.

To assume all the powers is not good for anybody. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. All those experiments have a bad ending.

We don't do the poor any favors by respecting the sensitivities of bad rulers who oppress their own people.

America simply prefers to deal with dictators.

English politicians and diplomats are somewhat naive. They find it difficult to credit really bad intentions in others.

Oppressive government is more terrible than tigers.

My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both: They are to say what they please, and I am to do as I please.

Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression.

The whole administrative, judicial, and legislative machinery obeys a single will, the caprice of General Porfirio Diaz, who during his long administration has shown that the principal motive that guides him is to maintain himself in power and at any cost.

Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesize and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.

He [Rafael Trujillo] had his torture chambers. He had his political assassinations. But he kept law and order, cleaned the place up, made it sanitary, built public works, and he didn’t bother the United States. So that was fine with us.

I do not have body doubles like Saddam Hussein had.

The director can be a dictator, but it's not wise to be. You have to choose the days to be a dictator and the days to deal with diplomacy and democracy. Every great leader should know that, even a dictator. Tyrants get overthrown.

Europeans have sometimes been beguiled by a despotism that comes concealed in the seductive form of an ideal – as it did in the cases of Hitler and Stalin. This fact may remind us that the possibility of despotism is remote neither in space nor in time.

Absolute power is absolute power, no matter what it's called.

Fascism is the consequence of economic jam and dictatorship is the product of Fascism, for Fascism cannot be managed save by a dictator.

Despotism sits nowhere so secure as under the effigy and ensigns of freedom.

Democracy is the opposite of totalitarianism, communism, fascism, or mobocracy.