Elliott Abrams Quotes

Stalin is too brutal. His powers should be taken away from him.

Enormous monarchies are probably destructive to human nature in their progress, in their continuance and even in their own downfall.

I am not a dictator, and I do not think I will become one. I will not maintain power with a machine gun.

The revolutionary government is the despotism of liberty

So benevolent, enlightened, wise dictators are the most efficient form of government. The problem is what comes afterwards, right?

The world has to have zero tolerance for naked dictatorship.

It didn't take long for the world to realize that the Shah was an enlightened liberal next to the bloody reactionary regime that followed, and which executed more people in three months than the Shah had done in 30 years.

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

Kim Jong-un's style is more suggestive of Saddam Hussein or his murderous son, Uday Hussein.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

I grew up in the shadow of the Trujillato, saw how the regime had ravaged so many families.

We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.

Bolshevism may be Marxian in theory, but it is Hulagoesque in practice. It may be of European descent, but it is Oriental in tradition. Oriental in mood. Oriental in temperament.

I hate Iran. I hate the Iranian government. It's a cruel and evil government.

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

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

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.

Totalitarianism liquidates its internal enemies or smashes opposition as soon as it arises; it uses methods that are simple and infallible because they are undemocratic. But democracy can defend itself from within only very feebly; its internal enemy has an easy time of it because he exploits the right to disagree that is inherent in democracy.

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

The record of Arab regimes is disgraceful and outrageous … worse than that of the occupier or the colonialist.

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.