Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes

When totalitarian regimes are established, they at least have the illusion of the single-minded purpose. But once they establish the stature that's necessary for a totalitarian regime, they tend to flail.

What they're doing is, they're making the decisions for us. That's what this country is coming down to. They're going to make the decisions for us.

Everything within the State. Nothing outside the State. Nothing against the State.

I want to be dictator.

Donald Trump gives the impression that he would like to govern by decree. He has that impulse in him and he wants to be a savior, so he says, in his famous phrase, "Only I can fix it!" That's a strange and weird statement for anybody to make, but it's central to Trump's sense of self and self-presentation. And I think that has a lot to do with his identification with dictators. No matter how many they kill and no matter what else they do, they have this capacity to rule by decree without any interference by legislators or courts.

The general (federal) government will tend to monarchy, which will fortify itself from day to day, instead of working its own cures.

I am often accused of interfering in the private lives of citizens. Yes, if I did not, had I not done that, we wouldn't be here today. And I say without the slightest remorse, that we wouldn't be here, we would not have made economic progress, if we had not intervened on very personal matters - who your neighbour is, how you live, the noise you make, how you spit, or what language you use. We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.

Totalitarian is a cliché, dictatorship is based on clichéd thinking, on very tried and tested uniform stuff. They don't mind that they're boring, they don't mind that they're obvious, their point is made.

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

Franklin, you may have to assume dictatorial powers.

Dictatorship: A system of government where everything that isn't forbidden is obligatory.

When a government takes over a people's economic life, it becomes absolute, and when it has become absolute, it destroys the arts, the minds, the liberties and the meaning of the people it governs.

The state must not ... let itself be confused by the drivel about so-called "freedom of the press," ... it must make sure of this instrument of popular education, and place it in the service of the state.

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

The army and the government needs a dictator.

If you want a Big Brother, you get all that comes with it

There is no "slippery slope" toward loss of liberty, only a long staircase where each step down must first be tolerated by the American people and their leaders.

The machine of repression can only be started, it can't be stopped - even by Putin.

'Socialize' means we turn more of our personal powers over to Big Brother, not free enterprise.

The whole Big Brother vision of the world is looming large.

A totalitarian power is mainly busy in keeping itself alive.

Everything Mengistu has done since 1977 has been to place himself in a position of uncontestable power. Neither Haile Selassie nor any of the previous emperors had this insatiable thirst for power.

A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.

Totalitarianism surpasses autocracy.

As soon as people drop the reins on government, government will leash the people.