Aesop Quotes

Any excuse will serve a tyrant.

… the tools of despotism and corruption

The tyrant is a child of pride.

Tyranny is always weakness

The tyrant is nothing but a slave turned inside out.

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

In every village there will arise a miscreant to establish the most grinding tyranny by calling himself the people.

none can be Tyrants but Cowards.

Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.

All men would be tyrants if they could.

Tyrants seldom want pretexts.

Power acquired by violence is only a usurpation, and lasts only as long as the force of him who commands prevails over that of those who obey.

Power tends to get confused with repression.

The tyrant is only the slave turned inside out.

Watch out for the man who talks of putting things in order. Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control.

Every dictator uses religion as a prop to keep himself in power.

Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesize and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.

President Maliki: The appetite has grown with the eating. He has become a real dictator.

When you're convinced that you're right and you believe that you have the license to do anything because you're right, you can be bossy and you can be dangerous. You can be oppressive. You can be a tyrant.

Tyranny may creep in under the outward forms of traditional law.

Those who lack the capacity to achieve much in an atmosphere of freedom will clamor for power.

That's what tyrants do, I guess. They make you covet their attention; they make you confuse attention for mercy.

The harshest tyranny is that which acts under the protection of legality and the banner of justice.

Dictators can always consolidate their tyranny by an appeal to patriotism.

That anyone who possesses power has a tendency to abuse it is an eternal truth. They tend to go as far as the barriers will allow.