Chris Matthews Quotes

Let people hate you so long as they fear you.

The thing about Republicans is that they don't care so much about respect, but they love fear, at least in others.

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.

We would rather be feared than respected.

Politics is the art of dominating men.

Can you be cruel and proud? For a great man among the commonalty, and in particular among such as we shall have to do with, will not be thought anything worth if he be not feared and dreaded, and at times renowned for his cruelty. It is thus that the Flemings wish to be governed; and among them men's lives should be no more valued, nor should they have more pity shown to them, than swallows or larks, which are caught in the proper season for the table.

If you've got 'em by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.

Xavier McDaniel made me respect him. I thought I could do anything I wanted to. He grabbed me one time and almost choked me out. He said, 'You're going to do this. You're going to go get coffee. You're going to go get doughnuts.' It's a game of respect.

Understand: A person of power instills a kind of fear by deliberately unsettling those around him to keep the initative on his side.

You can maintain power over people, as long as you give them something. Rob a man of everything, and that man will no longer be in your power.

I would rather you love me, but if not love, fear will do.

I am a collaborator with everyone who agrees that I need to be in control. I happily collaborate with my loyalists.

Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.

Fear is something I instill in other people, mostly young girls.

Back in those days intimidation was the greatest tool the drill instructor had. Without that tool, he would not have had control.

Fear is the foundation of most governments.

Machiavelli taught me it was better to be feared than loved. Because if you are loved they sense you might be weak. I am a man of the people and help them but it is important to do so through strength.

He was always testing you. He was always testing his power.

The man whose authority is recent is always stern.

Sometimes fear is used as a way to control.

Let them hate as long as they fear.

Once a person insists on how you are to think he immediately begins to insist on how you are to behave.

The Authority has the power to turn everyone against me, and they have.

She stared up at me, and there was something in her eyes, something that said we finally had an understanding. She was afraid of me, and sometimes that’s the best you can do with people. I’d tried kindness. I’d tried friendship. I’d tried respect. But when all else fails, fear will do the job.

To repress rebellion is to maintain the status quo, a condition which binds the mortal creature in a state of intellectual or physical slavery. But it is impossible to chain man merely by slaving his body; the mind also must be held, and to accomplish this, fear is the accepted weapon. The common man must fear life, fear death, fear God, fear the Devil, and fear most the overlords, the keepers of his destiny.