Abusive Power Quotes

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.

An emperor will be born near Italy who will do his country much harm … He will rise from a soldier to the throne.

Every censorship, however good its intent, degenerates inevitably into tyranny.

I have no desire to go in for tyranny or to play the part of King Charles. I hate tyranny in any field of human activity.

The Alien & Sedition Acts are a nullity as absolute and palpable as if Congress had ordered us to fall down and worship a golden image.

Power will intoxicate the best hearts, as wine the strongest heads. No man is wise enough, nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power.

To Cure the ill Use of Liberty, with a Deprivation of Liberty, is like cutting off the Leg to cure the Gout in the Toe

Whether it comes from a despotic sovereign or an elected president, from a murderous general or a beloved leader, I see power as an inhuman and hateful phenomenon.

This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,Was once thought honest.

The rule of several bad men does not last long, and easily decays to the rule of a single tyrant.

With police wielding unprecedented powers to invade privacy, tap phones and conduct searches seemingly at random, our civil liberties are in a very precarious condition.

The passion for power over others can never cease to threaten mankind, and is always sure of finding new and unforseen allies in continuing its martyrology.

Excessive liberty leads both nations and individuals into excessive slavery.

I have problems with a lot of photography, particularly street photography and photojournalism - objectifying the other, finding the contempt and exoticism that you might feel within yourself or toward yourself and projecting it out to others. There can be an abusive power to photography, too.

John Adams is a repulsive pedant, a gross hypocrite and an unprincipled oppressor…. The Adams administration is a continual tempest of malignant passions.

Every American, regardless of their background, has the right to live free of unwarranted government intrusion. Repealing the worst provisions of the Patriot Act will reign in this gross abuse of power and restore to everyone our basic Constitutional rights.

Stop and search has a controversial history and has not always been carried out professionally by individual officers. Liberal-minded people are right to be wary about its overuse. However, it is also regarded by most people as a legitimate and necessary tactic.

Domestic intelligence activity has threatened and undermined the Constitutional rights of Americans to free speech, association and privacy. It has done so primarily because the Constitutional system for checking abuse of power has not been applied.

Challenging and highlighting abusive power dynamics in our culture is my goal; replicating them is not.

You are becoming a left wing McCarthyite …. The FBI has better things to do than to listen to our conversations.

We, as lawyers, must point out that unrestrained power is almost always abusive.

A dramatic, evocative, thoughtful and very accessible account of one of the most important stories of the century - and one of the most ominous, unless citizens are aroused to action to rein in abusive state power.

The wise determine from the gravity of the case; the irritable, from sensibility to oppression; the high minded, from disdain and indignation at abusive power in unworthy hands.

There are no honorable rulers.