Henry Miller Quotes

A dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority: what it abominates most is the dissent of the majority.

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

When the people have no other tyrant, their own public opinion becomes one.

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

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

A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.

Under conditions of tyranny it is far easier to act than to think.

Some people still believe you should just fall in line with what's going on - and that's scary. It makes a mockery of freedom of speech.

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.

The price of freedom is less than the cost of repression.

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.

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.

Socialism holds nothing but unhappiness for the human race. It destroys personal initiative, wipes out national pride ... and plays into the hands of the autocrats.... Socialism is the end of fanatics, the sophistry of so-called intelligentsia, and it has no place in the hearts of those who would secure and fight for freedom and preserve democracy.

I will never abuse power if elected.... This country [Russia] can never again fall under the influence of a dictator.

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

There is no such thing as a liberal dictatorship, because a dictator just cannot afford to be liberal.

In a hundred years to come my people will not be fit for liberty. They do not know what it is….Despotism is the proper government for them.

A totalitarian society makes enormous demands on the courage of men, and a partially totalitarian society makes even greater demands because the general anxiety is greater.

Where is the democracy that British gave us? Ayub Khan robbed us of it. And what did he give us in return ? He gave us his own version of democracy which does not even deserve the name of democracy.

An oppressive government is worse than a man-eating tiger.

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.

The spectacle which confronts all Europe today is a great conflict between democracy and dictatorship.

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