Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [61-80] of 689 Tyranny quotesTyranny QuotesTyranny Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important of the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if strictly obeyed, would put an end to personal liberty... and subject innocent persons to all the vexations that the guilty alone ought to suffer? Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. They ought to be designated as laws not preventive but fearful of crimes, produced by the tumultuous impression of a few isolated facts, and not by thoughtful consideration of the inconveniences and advantages of a universal decree.~ Cesare Beccaria Make men large and strong and tyranny will bankrupt itself in making shackles for them.~ Rev. Henry Ward Beecher Stroke of the pen. Law of the land. Kinda cool.~ Paul Begala The first people totalitarians destroy or silence are men of ideas and free minds.~ Isaiah Berlin Civilization exists precisely so that there may be no masses but rather men alert enough never to constitute masses.~ Georges Bernanos Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.~ Ambrose Bierce Idiot, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling.~ Ambrose Bierce Intellectual and cultural freedom is the most important single precondition for the breakdown of the kinds of tyrannical and totalitarian systems that periodically threaten us.~ James Billington [I]t is true that [the provisions of the Bill of Rights] were designed to meet ancient evils. But they are the same kind of human evils that have emerged from century to century whenever excessive power is sought by the few at the expense of the many.~ Justice Hugo L. Black That the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution.~ Sir William Blackstone Freedom of the mind requires not only, or not even especially, the absence of legal constraints but the presence of alternative thoughts. The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity, but the one that removes awareness of other possibilities.~ Alan Bloom Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.~ Napoleon Bonaparte A functioning police state needs no police.~ William S. Borroughs The first step in saving our liberty is to realize how much we have already lost, how we lost it, and how we will continue to lose it unless fundamental political changes occur.~ James Bovard Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law breaker, it breeds contempt for the law.~ Justice Louis D. Brandeis Ways may someday be developed by which the government, without removing papers from secret drawers, can reproduce them in court, and by which it will be enabled to expose to a jury the most intimate occurrences of the home.~ Justice Louis D. Brandeis Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burned women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.~ Justice Louis D. Brandeis Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.~ Justice Louis D. Brandeis If you think we are free today, you know nothing about tyranny and even less about freedom.~ Tom Braun The government is good at one thing. It knows how to break your legs, and then hand you a crutch and say, ‘See if it weren’t for the government, you wouldn’t be able to walk.’~ Harry Browne Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print