Clarence Darrow Quotes

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

Fear must rule in a despotism.

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.

… so long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.

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

This is not a democracy," I said, understanding he fear but unable to do anything about it. "It's a Maxocracy.

Dictatorship is a constant lecture instructing you that your feelings, your thoughts and desires are of no account, that you are a nobody and must live as you are told by other people who desire and think for you

In a democracy the people choose a leader in whom they trust. Then the chosen leader says, 'Now shut up and obey me.' People and party are then no longer free to interfere in his business.

Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress?

There are few minds to which tyranny is not delightful.

An autocratic system of coercion, in my opinion, soon degenerates. For force always attracts men of low morality, and I believe it to be an invariable rule that tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels. For this reason I have always been passionately opposed to systems such as we see in Italy and Russia to-day.

The totalitarian phenomenon is not to be understood without making an allowance for the thesis that some important part of every society consists of people who actively want tyranny: either to exercise it themselves or - much more mysteriously - to submit to it.

What whip lashed them to their knees in shame and submission? The worship of the word "We.

The tyrant claims freedom to kill freedom, and yet keep it for himself.

Tyranny is like the electric wiring in an old house. A tyrant dies, the new tyrant takes possession, and all he has to do is drop the switch.

A tyrant institutionalises stupidity, but he is the first servant of his own system and the first to be installed within it.

The fact is that certain themes cannot be celebrated in words, and tyranny is one of them. No one ever wrote a good book in praise of the Inquisition.

Any excuse will serve a tyrant.

Fear of death has been the greatest ally of tyranny past and present.

Secrecy is the freedom tyrants dream of.

Tyranny is always better organized than freedom.

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.

All men would be tyrants if they could.

The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.

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