Joseph Brodsky Quotes

The more rulers strive to curtail freedom of speech, the more obstinately are they resisted; …. laws directed against opinions affect the generous minded rather than the wicked, and are adapted less for coercing criminals than for irritating the upright; so that they cannot be maintained without great peril to the state.

Secrecy is the freedom tyrants dream of.

In Russia all tyrants believe poets to be their worst enemies.

The world will not accept dictatorship or domination.

When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right.

The principle of evil in Europe is the enervating spirit of Russian absolutism.

Rebellion! the very word is a confession; an avowal of tyranny, outrage, and oppression. It is taken from the despot's code, and has no terror for others than slavish souls.

the Distress of our oppressed Country, which now unjustly feels the baneful Effects of arbitrary Power.

Revolution is engendered by an indignation with tyranny, yet is itself pregnant with tyranny

An attempt to scrutinize men’s thoughts and punish their opinions is of all kinds of despotism the most odious: yet this is peculiarly character of a period of revolution.... There is no period more at war with the existence of liberty.

There are men—now in power in this country—who do not respect dissent, who cannot cope with turmoil, and who believe that the people of America are ready to support repression so long as it is done with a quiet voice and a business suit.

When despots rule, cartoonists die.

Such is the terror--the crushing fear--which is inspired by one man over that multitude, which now submits to his decrees with a zeal, apparently as ardent, as it is certainly abject and submissive. There is not a complaint heard. The calm and dark waters of despotism are never disturbed by the slightest ripple. Not a breath of free thought or manly speech passes over them, but they lie dead and deep, into which every vestige of the people's liberty and freedom has sunk and disappeared.

The one indisputable reality of dictatorship is that dissent, insult, and malevolent language do not go unpunished if it is allowed at all.

History has proved that dictators can't last forever.

Once you start choking the space for dissent in a democracy, people feel pushed to the wall and then it leads to further dissent and alienation.

Tyranny is tyranny, no matter what its form; the free man will resist it if his courage serves.

Under the rule of a repressive whole, liberty can be made into a powerful instrument of domination.

Conquerors never, never conquer a nation to bring freedom. They brought control.

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.

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

In contrast, fear societies are societies in which dissent is banned.

Will dissent be permitted? The answer to that question will determine whether the society is a free society or a fear society.

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

No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever.