Reid Hoffman Quotes

The government of a single person is no assurance of a stable and tranquil government.

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

Moammar Gaddafi, who has called himself the 'Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,' should go down in history with the Emperor Bokassa and Idi Amin as a grotesque reminder of why people have the right to change their government.

The army and the government needs a dictator.

To trample democracy with one’s feet and to give power to a single man over almost eighty million people is so terrible that one can very probably tremble over the events which will come here.

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

We are a slack people but deeply destructive … I think that a constitutional regime would mean the end of Russia. We need a despot!

I do not want to be recorded in history as the man who bequeathed a tyranny.

Dictatorships don't always die when the dictator leaves office.

If Saddam were to be replaced tomorrow he would probably be replaced with someone who's just as bad or worse than he is.

Freedom is contagious. That's why despots fear it so much.

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.

It's time to bury the unreal, failed 'realism' of those who have long thought that dictators brought stability.

You can't become a dictator through checks and balances.

Dictators are interesting, no?

I've met quite a few dictators up close and personal in my life.

It is from weakness that people reach for dictators and concentrated government power. Only the strong can be free. And only the productive can be strong.

Freedom's skeptics must understand that the democracy that hates you is less dangerous than the dictator who loves you.

All executive power --- from the reign of ancient kings to the rule of modern dictators --- has the outward appearance of efficiency

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

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.

Only the history of free peoples is worth our attention; the history of men under a despotism is merely a collection of anecdotes.

The more a regime claims to be the embodiment of liberty the more tyrannical it is likely to be.

The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands of others the submissiveness of sheep.

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