Simon Sebag Montefiore Quotes

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

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

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

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

At times it is necessary for a country to have, for a time, some form or other of dictatorial power..

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.

A country governed by a despot is an inverted cone.

When liberty becomes license, some form of one-man power is not far distant.

A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it.

We've been saying Putin is a dictator for years who doesn't care about the law.

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

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

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

Totalitarianism is feudalism in the twelfth century sense of the word.

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.

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

A general presumption that Icings will govern well, is not a sufficient security to the People... those who subjected themselves to the will of a man were governed by a beast.

... the perfect dictatorship.

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.

Dictators are the last to know.

I believe in benevolent dictatorships, provided I am the dictator.

You can't be a dictator any more; anyone who tries to play the part of God will stumble.

Starting from unlimited freedom, I conclude with unlimited despotism.

The army and the government needs a dictator.

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