Walid Jumblatt Quotes

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

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

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

Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who posses it; and this I know, my lords: that where law ends, tyranny begins.

Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.

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

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.

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

Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.

Emperor Napoleon is nothing but an ordinary king who tramples on human rights.

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

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

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

Absolute power should never be trusted to man. It has perverted the wisest heads, and corrupted the best hearts in the world. I should be afraid to commit my property, liberty and life to a body of angels for one whole year.

One hundred and seventy-three despots would surely be as oppressive as one.

The most insupportable of tyrants exclaim against the exercise of arbitrary power.

Absolute power turns its possessors not into a God but an anti-God. For God turned clay into men, while the absolute despot turns men into clay.

What is more cruel than a tyrant's ear?

Despotism increases in severity with the number of despots; the responsibility is more divided, and the claims are more numerous.

A collective tyrant, spread over the length and breadth of the land, is no more acceptable than a single tyrant ensconced on his throne.

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.

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

Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.

I have no desire to go in for tyranny or to play the part of King Charles. I hate tyranny in any field of human activity.

Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.