Fatima Mernissi Quotes

A State infinitely worse than that which the most inflamed Zealot, the most violent Republican or Enthusiast even pretended to dread before the Rebellion commenced.

I fear that, tired of anarchy, you may hope at the end for a return of oppression and that you may welcome the yoke of the first fortunate adventurer who shows up, who, far from consolidating your destiny, will only prolong your servitude

There is a very long history of oppression in the Arab world, particularly in the states he mentions: Iran, Iraq, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, as well as in Sudan and Tunisia. These regimes are not based on democracy and their legitimacy comes from military dictatorships or inherited systems. The basic right of an individual to voice his or her opinion is not granted in any kind of form in the Arab world.

Starting from unlimited freedom, I conclude with unlimited despotism.

Rule with an iron first will inevitably come to an end.

Our city finds itself in an uncomfortable place: on the frontline between freedom and auto_cracy.

If you're too free, you're like the way Hong Kong is now. It's very chaotic.

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

Secrecy is the freedom tyrants dream of.

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.

Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called and whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men.

A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.

Under conditions of tyranny it is far easier to act than to think.

Excessive dealings with tyrants are not good for the security of free states.

Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people.

Despotism can only exist in darkness, and there are too many lights now in the political firmament to permit it to remain anywhere, as it has heretofore done, almost everywhere.

Freedom only for the members of the government, only for the members of the Party - though they are quite numerous - is no freedom at all.

Tyrants are seldom free; the cares and the instruments of their tyranny enslave them.

Yet did that Antiochus, who was also called Dionysius, become an origin of troubles again.

Every dictator is an enemy of freedom, an opponent of law.

I admit that what you have just heard might be for the welfare of the country, were it not that the presence of despotism are always dangerous.

The price of freedom is less than the cost of repression.

The Chinese people are not a new kind of human nature. Human nature in China is the same as it is elsewhere. When you start in a tyrannical regime to hand out freedom there is no place to draw that line and expect that line to hold. And so it’s only a matter of time before this regime comes down

Death is a better, milder fate than tyranny

Authoritarianism provides a kind of negative stability. Democracy creates space to do a lot of things, sometimes bad things, dangerous things.