The gods have attached almost as many misfortunes to liberty as to servitude.
[E.g. (1880]

The gods [...] have connected nearly as many evils to liberty as to servitude.
[tr. Allen (2008)]

In republican governments men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former because they are everything, in the latter because they are nothing.
[tr. Nugent (1750)]

Men are all equal in republican government; they are equal in despotic government; in the former, it is because they are everything; in the latter, it is because they are nothing.
[tr. Cohler/Miller/Stone (1989)]

I readily admit that public tranquility is a great good; but at the same time I cannot forget that all nations have been enslaved by being kept in good order. Certainly it is not to be inferred that nations ought to despise public tranquility; but that state ought not to content them. A nation which asks nothing of its government but the maintenance of order is already a slave at heart, -- the slave of its own well-being, awaiting but the hand that will bind it.
[tr. Reeve (1835)]

When the savages of Louisiana are desirous of fruit, they cut the tree to the root, and gather the fruit. This is an emblem of despotic government.
[tr. Nugent (1750)]

When the savages of Louisiana want fruit, they cut down the tree and gather the fruit. There you have despotic government.
[tr. Cohler/Miller/Stone (1989)]

Excessive obedience supposes ignorance in the person that obeys: the same it supposes in him that commands; for he has no occasion to deliberate, to doubt, to reason; he has only to will.
[tr. Nugent (1750)]

Extreme obedience assumes ignorance in him who obeys; it assumes ignorance even in him who commands: he has no need to deliberate, to doubt, or to reason, he has only to will.
[tr. Stewart (2018)

Nice people made the best Nazis. My mom grew up next to them. They got along, refused to make waves, looked the other way when things got ugly and focused on happier things than “politics.” They were lovely people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away. You know who weren’t nice people? Resisters.

But if already -- may the Gods avert the omen! -- the State has been brought to its latest pass, let us, the leaders of the world and of all nations, do what stout gladiators do to die with honour, let us fall with dignity rather than serve with ignominy. [tr. Ker (Loeb) (1926)]

If -- may the Gods avert the omen! -- the final episode in the history of the Res publica has arrived, let us behave like champion gladiators: they meet death honorably; let us, who stand foremost in the world and all nations, see to it that we fall with dignity rather than serve with ignominy.
[tr. Manuwald (2007)]

But if, may the Gods avert the omen, final fate has come to the State, let us, leaders of the world and all nations, do what noble gladiators do to die with dignity: let us fall on our sword rather than serve with ignominy.
[tr. Wiseman]

No tyranny can have a severer effect that that which is exercised under the appearance of laws, and with the plausible colours of justice, when the executors of cruel power would, if we may use the expression, drown the unhappy wretches on the very plank that before saved them admidst the troubled waves.
[tr. B--- (1734)]

There is no tyranny more cruel than that which is perpetrated under the color of the laws and in the name of justice -- when, so to speak, one is drawn down and drowned by means of the very plank which should have borne him up and saved his life.
[tr. Baker (1882)]

There is no tyranny more cruel than that which is exercised within the shade of the law and with the colours of justice.
[E.g.]

There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.
[E.g.]

There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.
[E.g.]

You know Antonius' insolence, you know his friends, you know his whole household. Slavery under men lustful, wanton, foul, unchaste, gamblers and drunkards, this is the utmost misery allied with the utmost disgrace.
[tr. Ker (Loeb) (1926)]

You know Antonius' insolence, you know his friends, you now his whole retinue. To be slave to libertines, bullies, foul profligates, gamblers, drunkards, that is the ultimate misery joined with the ultimate in dishonour.
[tr. Manuwald (2007)]

I see more reason to fear that through ignorance of the true road to glory you should think that it consists in being more powerful than all your fellow-citizens, and in being the object of their dread.
[tr. King (1877)]

What I am more afraid of is lest, being ignorant of the true path to glory, you should think it glorious for you to have more power by yourself than all the rest of the people put together, and lest you should prefer being feared by your fellow-citizens to being loved by them.
[tr. Yonge (1903)]

What I more fear is this -- that, blind to glory's true path, you may think it glorious to possess in your single self more power than all, and to be feared by your fellow-citizens.
[tr. Ker (Loeb) (1926)]

I fear more that, ignorant of the true path to glory, you may think it glorious for you alone to be more powerful than all, and feared by your fellow-citizens.
[tr Wiseman]

What juster cause is there for waging war than the wish to repel slavery? in which, even if one's master be not tyrannical, yet it is a most miserable thing that he should be able to be so if he chooses.
[tr. Yonge (1903)]

Is there any better reason for waging war than to ward off slavery? In slavery, even if the master is not oppressive, the sorry thing still is that he can be if he wishes.
[tr. Manuwald (2007)]

What cause for war is more just than the repulsion of slavery? even under a benign master, it is miserable that he has the power, if he wants to use it.
[tr. Wiseman]

The past, it is true, is very strong at the present hour. It is reviving. This revivification of a corpse is surprising. Here it is walking and advancing. It seems victorious; this dead man is a conqueror. He comes with his legion, the superstitions, with his sword, despotism, with his banner, ignorance; within a little time he has won ten battles. He advances, he threatens, he laughs, he is at our doors.
[tr. Wilbour (1862)]

The past, we grant, is very powerful at the present hour, and is beginning again. This rejuvenescence of a corpse is surprising, yet here it is, marching straight toward us. The dead man appears a victor, and is a conqueror; he arrives with his legion, superstitions; with his sword, despotism; with his banner, ignorance; and during sometime past he has gained ten battles. He advances, he threatens, he laughs, he is at our gates.
[tr. Wraxall (1862)]

The past is very strong, it is true, at the present moment. It censures. This rejuvenation of a corpse is surprising. Behold, it is walking and advancing. It seems a victor; this dead body is a conqueror. He arrives with his legions, superstitions, with his sword, despotism, with his banner, ignorance; a while ago, he won ten battles. He advances, he threatens, he laughs, he is at our doors.
[tr. Hapgood (1887)]

The past, it is true, is very strong right now. It is reviving. This revivification of a corpse is surprising. Here it is walking and advancing. It seems victorious; this dead man is a conqueror. He comes with his legion, superstitions, with his sword, despotism, with his banner, ignorance; within a little time he has won ten battles. He advances, he threatens, he laughs, he is at our door.
[tr. Wilbour/Fahnestock/MacAfee (1987)]

At the moment, it is true, the past is very strong. It is reviving. This rejuvenation of a corpse is astounding. Back on its feet again, here it comes. It looks victorious. This defunct is a conqueror, it arrives with its legion -- superstitions -- with its sword -- despotism -- with its banner -- ignorance. Recently, it has won a dozen battles. It is advancing, threatening, laughing, it is at our gates.
[tr. Donougher (2013)]

There is no one so foolish as not to perceive that if we go to sleep over this opportunity we shall have to endure a tyranny which will be not only cruel and haughty, but also ignominious and flagitious. You know the insolence of Antonius; you know his friends, you know his whole household. To be slaves to lustful, wanton, debauched, profligate, drunken gamblers, is the extremity of misery combined with the extremity of infamy.
[tr. Yonge (1903)]

No man is so foolish as not to understand that, if we sleep on this crisis, we must bear a tyranny, not merely cruel and arrogant, but also ignominious and infamous. You know Antonius' insolence, you know his friends, you know his whole household. Slavery under men lustful, wanton, foul, unchaste, gamblers and drunkards, this is the utmost misery allied with the utmost disgrace.
[tr. Ker (Loeb) (1926)]

No man is so dull as not to realize that if we doze over this crisis we shall have to endure a despotism not only cruel and arrogant but ignominious and disgraceful. You now Antonius' insolence, you know his friends, you know his whole retinue. To be slave to libertines, bullies, foul profligates, gamblers, drunkards, that is the ultimate in misery joined with the ultimate in dishonor.
[tr. Manuwald (2007)]

But amid all the many evils which he has branded on the state, this good result there is, that the Roman people has now learned how far each man deserves its confidence, to whom it may entrust itself, of whom it should beware.
[tr. King (1877)]

But from the many evils which by him have been burned into the republic, there is still this good, that the Roman people has now learned how much to believe every one, to whom to trust itself, and against whom to guard.
[tr. Yonge (1903)]

But out of the many evils which Caesar inflicted on our country, there has come one good thing: the Roman people have now learned how far they can trust each person, whom they can rely on, and whom they should beware of.
[tr. Berry (2006)]

But, from the many evils which he branded on the Republic, this much that was good still came about: that the Roman people learnt how much to trust anyone, to whom they could entrust themselves and against whom they should be on their guard.
[tr. McElduff (2011)]

The chains ov slavery are none the less gauling for being made ov gold.
 
[The chains of slavery are none the less galling for being made of gold.]

if a nation expects to be ignorant & free, in a state of civilisation, it expects what never was & never will be. the functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty & property of their constituents. there is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information. where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.

The others you know well enough -- fools who seem to hope that their fish-ponds may be saved, though the country go to rack and ruin.
[tr. Winstedt (1912)]

As for the rest of the Optimates, you know them. They are so stupid as to suppose that their own fishponds can be unharmed even though the constitution go to pot.
[tr. McKinlay (1926), # 13]

The others you know. They seem fools enough to expect to keep their fish-ponds after losing constitutional freedom.
[tr. Shackleton Bailey (1968)]

Dorothy Parker, the writer, said that when she viewed a committee session last week it was "incredibly hideous, as though the Gestapo were there, and fascism was there."
"Fascism isn't coming here -- it is here," she declared. Miss Parker said the Hollywood investigation was "shocking, dreadful, terrifying."

One day Larisa Feodorovna went out and did not come back. She must have been arrested in the street at that time. She vanished without a trace and probably died somewhere, forgotten as a nameless number on a list that afterwards got mislaid, in one of the innumerable mixed or women's concentration camps in the north.
[tr. Hayward & Harari (1958), US ed.]

One day Larissa Fyodorovna left the house and did not come back again. Evidently she was arrested on the street in those days and died or vanished no one knew where, forgotten under some nameless number on subsequently lost lists, in one of the countless general or women’s concentration camps in the north.
[tr. Pevear & Volokhonsky (2010)]

YEVGAF: (voice-over) One day she went away and didn't come back. I tried to trace her; but I couldn't. She must have been arrested in the street, as so often happened in those days, and she died or vanished somewhere, forgotten as a nameless number on a list which was afterward mislaid, in one of the innumerable mixed or women's concentration camps in the north.
[tr. Bolt (1965), film]

... and now, it would seem, the Epigrams have got the upper hand.
[Source]

Pray that all who rejoice in tyranny,
Or in some small monarchy in their city, die terribly.
The name "freedom" is worth everything --
Even if he possesses a little, a man who has this is considered great.
[@sententiq (2015)]

Worth above all is a name fit for the free.
[Source]

Doth some one say that there be gods above?
There are not; no, there are not. Let no fool,
Led by the old false fable, thus deceive you.
Look at the facts themselves, yielding my words
No undue credence: for I say that kings
Kill, rob, break oaths, lay cities waste by fraud,
And doing thus are happier than those
Who live calm pious lives day after day. All divinity
Is built-up from our good and evil luck.
[tr. Symonds (1876)]

Does someone say there are indeed gods in heaven? There are not, there are not, if a man is willing not to rely foolishly on the antiquated reasoning. Consider for yourselves, do not base your opinion on words of mine. I say myself that tyranny kills very many men and dprives them of their possessions; and that tyrants break their oaths to ransack cities, and in doing this they are more prosperous under heaven than men who live quietly in reverence.
[tr. Collard, Hargreaves, Cropp (1995)]

Does anyone assert that there are gods in heaven? There are not, no, there are not, if a man is ready not to swallow whole the old tales. Think it through yourselves, do not make my words the foundation of your opinion. I declare that tyranny kills many, robs them, that tyrants break their oaths to plunder cities, yet in this they prosper more than those whose unassuming habit is true piety.
[tr. Stevens (2012)]

Does anyone say there are gods in heaven? There are not, there are not, unless one wishes to follow ancient wisdom like a fool. [...] I say that tyranny kills many people, deprives possessions, circumvents oaths, and plunders cities. And even though they do these things, they are more fortunate than those living piously day to day in peace.
[tr. Dixon (2014)]

Is there anyone who thinks there are gods in heaven?
There are not. There are not, for any man who wishes
Not to be a fool and trust some ancient story.
Look at it yourselves, don’t make up your mind
Because of my words. I think that tyranny
Kills so many men and steals their possessions
And that men break their oaths by sacking cities.
But the men who do such things are more fortunate
Than those who live each day piously, at peace.
[tr. @sentantiq (2015)]

People ask: Do gods really exist in heaven? No, they do not exist, they really don’t; if any of mankind wishes to avoid being the sort of fool who follows the ancient story. Consider it for yourselves, don’t take my word for it. I say that tyranny destroys multitudes and confiscates their possessions; oath-breakers sack cities; and yet, those who do such things are far more prosperous than those who, day by day, live devoutly and in peace.
[tr. Emerson]

If such an historian as Tacitus had written the chronicle of our nobler kings, making an exact statement of all those tyrannical actions and abuses of authority which are now for the most part buried in deep darkness, few of their reigns would inspire less horror than that of Tiberius.
[tr. Mathers (1926)]

If a historian such as Tacitus had written the histories of our best kings, with precise accounts of their tyrannical actions, and all their abuses of authority, most of which have been buried in the deepest obscurity, there are few reigns that would not arouse in us the same horror as that of Tiberius.
[tr. Merwin (1969)]

If a chronicler such as Tacitus had written the history of our best kings, preparing an exact amount of all tyrannical acts, of all the abuses of authority, of which the majority are concealed by fathomless obscurity, there would be few reigns which would [not?] inspire us with the same horror as that of Tiberius.
[tr. Pearson (1973)]

It is well enough in those who by open force have reduced any nation, and accordingly rule it with a high hand, if they do sometimes use rigour and severity, like masters towards their slaves when there is no other way of holding them in subjection: but for those who are magistrates in a free city, to endeavour to make themselves feared by the people, is one of the maddest and most desperate attempts on the face of the earth. [...] Let us therefore embrace and adhere to that method which is of the most universal influence, and serves not only to secure us what we have, but moreover to enlarge our power and authority; that is, in short, let us rather endeavour to be loved than feared, which is certainly the best way to make us successful, as well in our private as our public business.
[tr. Cockman (1699)]

But the truth is, cruelty must be employed by those who keep others in subjection by force; as by a master to his slaves, if they cannot otherwise be managed. But of all madmen, they are the maddest who, in a free state so conduct themselves as to be feared. [...] We ought therefore to follow this most obvious principle, that dread should be removed and affection reconciled, which has the greatest influence not only on our security but also on our interest and power; and thus we shall most easily attain to the object of our wishes, both in private and political affairs.
[tr. Edmonds (1865)]

Those who hold under their command subjects forcibly kept down must indeed resort to severity, as masters toward their slaves when they cannot otherwise be restrained. But nothing can be more mad than the policy of those who in a free state conduct themselves in such a way as to be feared. [...] Let us then embrace the policy which has the widest scope, and is most conducive, not to safety alone, but to affluence and power, namely, that by which fear may be suppressed, love retained. Thus shall we most easily obtain what we desire both in private and in public life.
[tr. Peabody (1883)]

Let tyrants exercise cruelty, as a master does towards his slaves when he cannot control them by other means: but for a Citizen of a free State to equip himself with the weapons of intimidation is the height of madness. [...] Let us then put away fear and cleave to love; love appeals to every heart, it is the surest means of gaining safety, influence and power; in a word, it is the key to success both in private and in public life.
[tr. Gardiner (1899)]

But those who keep subjects in check by force would of course have to employ severity -- masters, for example, toward their servants, when these cannot be held in control in any other way. But those who in a free state deliberately put themselves in a position to be feared are the maddest of the mad. [...] Let us, then, embrace this policy, which appeals to every heart and is the strongest support not only of security but also of influence and power -- namely, to banish fear and cleave to love. And thus we shall most easily secure success both in private and in public life.
[tr. Miller (1913)]

Men who dominate and command other men, whom they have subjugated by force, have to apply some harshness, just as the owner uses harshness toward his slaves if he cannot control them any other way. But it is completely senseless for men in a free city act in such a way that it causes others to live in fear: no one could be more insane. [...] So let us embrace a rule that applies widely and that is extremely effective not only maintaining safety but also in acquiring wealth and power, namely, that there should be no fear, that one should hold affection dear. This is the easiest way for ust to attain what we want both in private affairs and in the government.
[tr. Edinger (1974)]

And the inflictions of freedom interrupted, are more rigorous than if it had been retained.
[tr. McCartney (1798)]

For the inflictions of liberty, when it has been suspended, are more severe than if it had been retained.
[tr. Edmonds (1865)]

Men indeed feel more keenly the suppression of liberty than any evils incident to its preservation.
[tr. Peabody (1883)]

Freedom, if suppressed, only bites with keener fang.
[tr. Gardiner (1899)]

Freedom suppressed and again regained bites with keener fangs than freedom never endangered.
[tr. Miller (1913)]

But the wounds caused by the suspension of freedom hurt worse than those caused by maintaining it.
[tr. Edinger (1974)]

Democratic institutions are centres of quarantine against the old plague of tyrannical desires. As such they are extremely useful and extremely tedious.
[tr. Cohn (1913)]

Democratic institutions are quarantine mechanisms for that old pestilence, tyrannic lust. As such they are very useful and very boring.

• "When some possess too much, and others nothing at all, the government must either be in the hands of the meanest rabble or else a pure oligarchy; or, from the excesses of both, a tyranny." [tr. Ellis (1912)]
• "Where some own a very great deal of property and others none there comes about either an extreme democracy or an unmixed oligarchy, or a tyranny may result from both of the two extremes." [tr. Rackham (1932)]
• "Where some possess very many things and others nothing, either rule of the people in its extreme form must come into being, or unmixed oligarchy, or -- as a result of both of these excesses -- tyranny." [tr. Reeve (2007)]
• "Where some people are very wealthy and others have nothing, the result will be either extreme democracy or absolute oligarchy, or despotism will come from either of those excesses."

• "Also he should impoverish his subjects; he thus provides against the maintenance of a guard by the citizen and the people, having to keep hard at work, are prevented from conspiring." [tr. Jowett (1885)]


• "And it is a device of tyranny to make the subjects poor, so that a guard may not be kept, and also that the people being busy with their daily affairs may not have leisure to plot against their ruler." [tr. Rackham (1932)]


• "It is also a feature of tyranny to make the ruled poor, so that they cannot sustain their own defense, and are so occupied with their daily needs that they lack the leisure to conspire." [tr. Lord (1984)]


• "It is also in the interests of a tyrant to make his subjects poor, so that he may be able to afford the cost of his bodyguard, while the people are so occupied with their daily tasks that they have no time for plotting."


]]> https://wist.info/aristotle/45567/feed/ 0 45567 https://wist.info/cicero-marcus-tullius/45177/ https://wist.info/cicero-marcus-tullius/45177/#respond Mon, 25 Jan 2021 16:39:03 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=45177 But, of all motives, none is better adapted to secure influence and hold it fast than love; nothing is more foreign to that end than fear. […] For fear is but a poor safeguard of lasting power; while affection, on the other hand, may be trusted to keep it safe for ever.

[Omnium autem rerum nec aptius est quicquam ad opes tuendas ac tenendas quam diligi nec alienius quam timeri. … Malus enim est custos diuturnitatis metus contraque benivolentia fidelis vel ad perpetuitatem.]


Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
De Officiis [On Duties; On Moral Duty; The Offices], Book 2, ch. 7 (2.7) / sec. 23 (44 BC) [tr. Miller (1913)]
    (Source)

Discussing the fate of tyrants such as Julius Caesar. Original Latin. Alternate translations:



Now of all those methods, which tend to the advancement and maintenance of our interest, there is none more proper and convenient than love, and none more improper and inconvenient than fear. [...] For obedience, proceeding from fear, cannot possibly be lasting; whereas that which is the effect of love will be faithful for ever.
[tr. Cockman (1699)]




Of all means there is none better fitted for supporting and retaining our influence than to be loved; or more foreign to it, than to be feared. [...] Fear is a false and short-lived security, but the love of men is faithful and lasting.
[tr. McCartney (1798)]




Now, of all things there is none more adapted for supporting and retaining our influence than to be loved, nor more prejudicial than to be feared. [...] For fear is but a bad guardian to permanency, whereas affection is faithful even to perpetuity.
[tr. Edmonds (1865)]




But of all things nothing tends so much to the guarding and keeping of resources as to be the object of affection; nor is anything more foreign to that end than to be the object of fear. [...] For fear is but a poor guardian for permanent possession, and, on the other hand, good will is faithful so long as there can be need of its loyalty.
[tr. Peabody (1883)]




Of all the means of maintaining power, love is the best, the worst fear. [...] Fear is a poor guardian of lasting power; love will keep it safe for ever.
[tr. Gardiner (1899)]




However, among all qualities there is no more appropriate way to preserve and defend one's resources than to be well-liked, nothing less appropriate than to be feared. [...] To arouse fear in others is a bad guarantee of longevity, while on the other hand good will is faithful unto eternity.
[tr. Edinger (1974)]


]]> https://wist.info/cicero-marcus-tullius/45177/feed/ 0 45177 https://wist.info/arendt-hannah/45162/ https://wist.info/arendt-hannah/45162/#respond Thu, 21 Jan 2021 19:12:40 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=45162 If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end you get not only one lie — a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days — but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows. And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Interview (1973-10) with Roger Errera, Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF)
    (Source)

Parts of this interview were turned into an episode of the French TV series "Un certain regard," directed by Jean-Claude Lubtchansky, first broadcast 1974-07-06.

This section was published in The New York Review of Books (1978-10-26). ]]> https://wist.info/arendt-hannah/45162/feed/ 0 45162 https://wist.info/aristotle/42039/ https://wist.info/aristotle/42039/#respond Tue, 09 Jun 2020 22:40:37 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=42039 Their guards also are such as are used in a kingly government, not a despotic one; for the guards of their kings are his citizens, but a tyrant’s are foreigners. The one commands, in the manner the law directs, those who willingly obey; the other, arbitrarily, those who consent not. The one, therefore, is guarded by the citizens, the other against them.

[οἱ γὰρ πολῖται φυλάττουσιν ὅπλοις τοὺς βασιλεῖς, τοὺς δὲ τυράννους ξενικόν: οἱ μὲν γὰρ κατὰ νόμον καὶ ἑκόντων οἱ δ᾽ ἀκόντων ἄρχουσιν, ὥσθ᾽ οἱ μὲν παρὰ τῶν πολιτῶν οἱ δ᾽ ἐπὶ τοὺς πολίτας ἔχουσι τὴν φυλακήν.]


Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Politics [Πολιτικά], Book 3, ch. 14 / 1285a25 [tr. Ellis (1776)]
    (Source)

Original Greek. Alternate translations:
• "The guard of the king is, for the same cause, one that belongs to a monarch and not to a tyrant, for the citizens protect their kings with their arms; but it is aliens who guard despots. For the former rule legally over willing subjects, the latter over unwilling; so that the former are guarded by their subjects, the latter against them." [tr. Bolland (1877)]


• "Wherefore also their guards are such as a king and not such as a tyrant would employ, that is to say, they are composed of citizens, whereas the guards of tyrants are mercenaries. For kings rule according to the law over voluntary subjects, but tyrants over involuntary; and the one are guarded by their fellow-citizens, the others are guarded against them." [tr. Jowett (1921)]


• "Also their bodyguard is of a royal and not a tyrannical type for the same reason; for kings are guarded by the citizens in arms, whereas tyrants have foreign guards, for kings rule in accordance with law and over willing subjects, but tyrants rule over unwilling subjects, owing to which kings take their guards from among the citizens but tyrants have them to guard against the citizens." [tr. Rackham (1944)]


• "For the same reason, their bodyguard is of a kingly rather than a tyrannical sort. For the citizens guard kings with their own arms, while a foreign element guards the tyrant, since the former rule willing persons in accordance wit the law, while the latter rule unwilling persons. So the ones have a bodyguard provided by the citizens, the other one that is directed against them." [tr. Lord (1984)]


• "And their bodyguards are kingly and not tyrannical due to the same cause. For citizens guard kings with their weapons, whereas a foreign contingent guards tyrants. For kings rule in accord with the law and rule voluntary subjects, whereas the latter rule involuntary ones, so that the former have bodyguards drawn from the citizens, whereas the latter have bodyguards to protect them against the citizens." [tr. Reeve (2007)]


• "Citizens guard their kings with arms; foreigners protect tyrants. This is because kings rule according to the law and with willing citizens while tyrants rule the unwilling. As a result, kings have guards from their subjects and tyrants keep guards against them." [tr. @sentantiq]


]]> https://wist.info/aristotle/42039/feed/ 0 42039 https://wist.info/philo-of-alexandria/42003/ https://wist.info/philo-of-alexandria/42003/#respond Mon, 08 Jun 2020 21:33:17 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=42003 Indeed, just as frightened horses raise their necks up high, in the same way all those devotees of empty glory raise themselves above everything else, above cities, laws, ancestral custom, and the affairs of individual citizens. As they move from demagoguery to dictatorship, they subdue some of their neighbors as they try to make themselves superior and upright — and then they plan to enslave however so many minds remain naturally free and unenslaved.

[τῷ γὰρ ὄντι καθάπερ οἱ γαῦροι τῶν ἵππων τὸν αὐχένα μετέωρον ἐξάραντες, ὅσοι θιασῶται τῆς κενῆς δόξης εἰσίν, ἐπάνω πάντων ἑαυτοὺς ἱδρύουσι, πόλεων, νόμων, ἐθῶν πατρίων, τῶν παρ᾿ ἑκάστοις πραγμάτων· εἶτα ἀπὸ δημαγωγίας ἐπὶ δημαρχίαν βαδίζοντες καὶ τὰ μὲν τῶν πλησίον καταβάλλοντες, τὰ δὲ οἰκεῖα διανιστάντες καὶ παγίως ὀρθοῦντες, ὅσα ἐλεύθερα καὶ ἀδούλωτα φύσει φρονήματα]


Philo of Alexandria (AD c. 20-50) Hellenistic Jewish philosopher [Philo Judaeus]
On Dreams, That They Are God-Sent [Quod a Deo Mittantur Somnia or De Somniis], Book 2, ch. 12 [2.78-79] [tr. @sentantiq]
    (Source)

Alt. trans.: "In real truth, as spirited horses lift their necks high, so all who are companions of vain opinion place themselves above all things, above all cities, and laws, and national customs, and above all the circumstances which affect each individual of them. Then proceeding onwards from being demagogues to being leaders of the people, and overthrowing the things which belong to their neighbours, and setting up and establishing on a solid footing what belongs to themselves, that is to say, all such dispositions as are free and by nature impatient of slavery, they attempt to reduce these also under their power." [Yonge (1855)] ]]> https://wist.info/philo-of-alexandria/42003/feed/ 0 42003 https://wist.info/shipley-jonathan/41913/ https://wist.info/shipley-jonathan/41913/#respond Fri, 29 May 2020 22:41:30 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=41913 The true art of government consists in not governing too much.

Jonathan Shipley (1714-1788) Clergyman in the Church in Wales
“A Sermon Preached Before the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,” St. Mary-Le-Bow, London (19 Feb 1773)
    (Source)

Shipley believed that a lighter hand in the American colonies would make them want to remain with Britain, to the benefit of all parties. ]]> https://wist.info/shipley-jonathan/41913/feed/ 0 41913 https://wist.info/acton-lord/41613/ https://wist.info/acton-lord/41613/#respond Thu, 07 May 2020 22:53:55 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=41613 Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.

John Dalberg, Lord Acton (1834-1902) British historian, politician, writer
Note #10, in George Watson, Lord Acton’s History of Liberty (1994)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/acton-lord/41613/feed/ 0 41613 https://wist.info/sutherland-george/41193/ https://wist.info/sutherland-george/41193/#respond Tue, 31 Mar 2020 22:30:50 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=41193 Arbitrary power and the rule of the Constitution cannot both exist. They are antagonistic and incompatible forces; and one or the other must of necessity perish whenever they are brought in conflict.

George Sutherland (1862-1942) Anglo-American jurist, Supreme Court Justice (1922-1938)
Jones v. Securities & Exchange Commission 298 U.S. 1 (1936) [majority opinion]
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/sutherland-george/41193/feed/ 0 41193 https://wist.info/taft-william/41177/ https://wist.info/taft-william/41177/#respond Mon, 30 Mar 2020 18:06:11 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=41177 No honest, clear-headed man, however great a lover of popular government, can deny that the unbridled expression of the majority of a community converted hastily into law or action would sometimes make a government tyrannical and cruel. Constitutions are checks upon the hasty action of the majority. They are the self-imposed restraints of a whole people upon a majority of them to secure sober action and a respect for the rights of the minority.

William Howard Taft (1857-1930) US President (1909-13) and Chief Justice (1921-1930)
Veto Statement for the Arizona Enabling Act (15 Aug 1911)
    (Source)

Taft vetoed the admission of Arizona to the US with a state constitution that allowed popular recall of judges. ]]> https://wist.info/taft-william/41177/feed/ 0 41177 https://wist.info/lewis-cs/40654/ https://wist.info/lewis-cs/40654/#comments Wed, 12 Feb 2020 20:09:29 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=40654 I am a democrat because I believe in the Fall of Man. I think most people are democrats for the opposite reason. A great deal of democratic enthusiasm descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who believed in democracy because they thought mankind so wise and good that everyone deserved a share in government. The danger of defending democracy on those grounds is that they’re not true. And whenever their weakness is exposed, the people who prefer tyranny make capital out of the exposure. I find that they’re not true without looking further than myself. I don’t deserve a share in governing a hen-roost, much less a nation. Nor do most people — all the people who believe advertisements, and think in catchwords and spread rumours. The real reason for democracy is just the reverse. Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows. Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters.

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Essay (1943-08-27), “Equality,” The Spectator
    (Source)

Reprinted in Present Concerns (1986). See Lincoln. ]]> https://wist.info/lewis-cs/40654/feed/ 1 40654 https://wist.info/abbey-edward/40157/ https://wist.info/abbey-edward/40157/#respond Fri, 17 Jan 2020 22:57:48 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=40157 Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners.

Edward Abbey (1927-1989) American anarchist, writer, environmentalist
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness, ch. 3 “Government and Politics” (1989)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/abbey-edward/40157/feed/ 0 40157 https://wist.info/paine-thomas/40072/ https://wist.info/paine-thomas/40072/#respond Tue, 14 Jan 2020 22:36:13 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=40072 Because a body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody, ought not to be trusted by anybody.




Thomas Paine (1737-1809) American political philosopher and writer
Rights of Man (1791)
    (Source)

Reason Four why an aristocratic body of hereditary legislators (such as the United Kingdom's House of Lords) is a bad idea. ]]> https://wist.info/paine-thomas/40072/feed/ 0 40072 https://wist.info/walpole-horace/39939/ https://wist.info/walpole-horace/39939/#respond Tue, 07 Jan 2020 22:44:35 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=39939 Nations are most commonly saved by the worst men in them. The virtuous are too scrupulous to go to the lengths which are necessary to rouse the people against their tyrants.




Horace Walpole (1717-1797) English novelist, letter writer
Memoirs of the Reign of King George III, Vol. 1, ch. 12 (1859)
    (Source)

Variants:
• "The adventurer's career suggests the reflection that nations are usually saved by their worse men, since the virtuous are too scrupulous to go to the lengths needed to rouse the people against their tyrants." (Source)
• "The virtuous are too scrupulous to go to the lengths that are necessary to rouse the people against their tyrants."
• Modern paraphrase: "No great country was ever saved by good men because good men will not go to the lengths necessary to save it."
• Modern paraphrase: "No great country was ever saved by good men, because good men may not go to the lengths that may be necessary."
]]> https://wist.info/walpole-horace/39939/feed/ 0 39939 https://wist.info/baldwin-james/39926/ https://wist.info/baldwin-james/39926/#respond Mon, 06 Jan 2020 21:32:29 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=39926 Let me point out to you that freedom is not something that anybody can be given; freedom is something people take and people are as free as they want to be. One hasn’t got to have an enormous military in order to be unfree when it’s simpler to be asleep, when it’s simpler to be apathetic, when it’s simpler, in fact, not to want to be free, to think that something else is more important.




James Baldwin (1924-1987) American novelist, playwright, activist
“Notes for a Hypothetical Novel,” speech, San Francisco College (22 Oct 1960)
    (Source)

Later published in Nobody Knows My Name (1961). ]]> https://wist.info/baldwin-james/39926/feed/ 0 39926 https://wist.info/forster-e-m/39568/ https://wist.info/forster-e-m/39568/#respond Wed, 04 Sep 2019 18:35:39 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=39568 Some people idealize force and pull it into the foreground and worship it, instead of keeping it in the background as long as possible. I think they make a mistake, and I think that their opposites, the mystics, err even more when they declare that force does not exist. I believe that it exists, and that one of our jobs is to prevent it from getting out of its box. It gets out sooner or later, and then it destroys us and all the lovely things which we have made. But it is not out all the time, for the fortunate reason that the strong are so stupid.

E. M. Forster (1879-1970) English novelist, essayist, critic, librettist [Edward Morgan Forster]
“What I Believe,” The Nation (16 Jul 1938) ]]> https://wist.info/forster-e-m/39568/feed/ 0 39568 https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/39436/ https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/39436/#respond Sun, 05 May 2019 22:15:19 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=39436 I endorse it. I think it was correct. Contrary to what many have said, it sought to outlaw neither prayer nor belief in god. In a pluralistic society such as ours, who is to determine what prayer shall be spoken and by whom? Legally, constitutionally or otherwise, the state certainly has no such right.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Playboy interview (Jan 1965)
    (Source)

On the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to ban school-led prayer. ]]> https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/39436/feed/ 0 39436 https://wist.info/dick-philip-k/39294/ https://wist.info/dick-philip-k/39294/#respond Fri, 01 Mar 2019 02:25:37 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=39294 The authentic human being is one of us who instinctively knows what he should not do and, in addition, will balk at doing it. He will refuse to do it, even if this brings down dread consequences to him and those whom he loves. This, to me, is the ultimately heroic trait of ordinary people. They say “no” to the tyrant and they calmly take the consequences of this resistance. Their deeds may be small, and almost always unnoticed, unmarked by history. Their names are not remembered, nor did these authentic humans expect their names to be remembered. I see their authenticity in an odd way: not in their willingness to perform great heroic deeds, but in their quiet refusals to commit villainies. In essence, they cannot be compelled to be what they are not.

Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) American writer
Speech (1978) “How To Build A Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later”
    (Source)

First collected in Dick's I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon (1985) [ed. Mark Hurst and Paul Williams], where it serves as the introduction.

Lawrence Sutin, editor of The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick (1995) (where this is reprinted) suggests this speech was "likely never delivered." ]]> https://wist.info/dick-philip-k/39294/feed/ 0 39294 https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/38911/ https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/38911/#respond Fri, 26 Oct 2018 18:32:04 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=38911 Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours its own kind; for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe, and to the general prey of the rich upon the poor.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1787-01-16) to Edward Carrington
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/38911/feed/ 0 38911 https://wist.info/godwin-william/38136/ https://wist.info/godwin-william/38136/#respond Mon, 23 Oct 2017 23:21:24 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=38136 Whenever government assumes to deliver us from the trouble of thinking for ourselves, the only consequences it produces are those of torpor and imbecility.

William Godwin (1756-1836) English journalist, political philosopher, novelist
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, Vol. 2, bk. 6, ch. 1 (1793)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/godwin-william/38136/feed/ 0 38136 https://wist.info/niebuhr-reinhold/37201/ https://wist.info/niebuhr-reinhold/37201/#respond Mon, 12 Jun 2017 17:17:54 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=37201 [T]here are historic situations in which refusal to defend the inheritance of a civilization, however imperfect, against tyranny and aggression may result in consequences even worse than war.

Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) American theologian and clergyman
“Christian Faith and the World Crisis,” Christianity and Crisis (10 Feb 1941) ]]> https://wist.info/niebuhr-reinhold/37201/feed/ 0 37201 https://wist.info/lao-tzu/36742/ https://wist.info/lao-tzu/36742/#comments Wed, 12 Apr 2017 13:55:53 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=36742 The more laws and orders are made prominent,
The more thieves and bandits there will be.

Lao-tzu (604?-531? BC) Chinese philosopher, poet [also Lao-tse, Laozi]
Tao-te Ching, ch. 57 [tr. Wing-Tsit Chan] ]]> https://wist.info/lao-tzu/36742/feed/ 2 36742 https://wist.info/marx-karl/36667/ https://wist.info/marx-karl/36667/#respond Thu, 06 Apr 2017 17:20:43 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=36667 The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

Karl Marx (1818-1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist
The Communist Manifesto (1848) [with Friedrich Engels] ]]> https://wist.info/marx-karl/36667/feed/ 0 36667 https://wist.info/lowell-james-russell/36460/ https://wist.info/lowell-james-russell/36460/#respond Mon, 13 Mar 2017 15:52:01 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=36460 Democ’acy gives every man
The right to be his own oppressor.




James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) American diplomat, essayist, poet
The Bigalow Papers, Second Series, “Ef I a song or two could make,” l. 97 (1867) ]]> https://wist.info/lowell-james-russell/36460/feed/ 0 36460 https://wist.info/black-hugo/36400/ https://wist.info/black-hugo/36400/#respond Sat, 25 Feb 2017 00:25:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=36400 In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government’s power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.




Hugo Black (1886-1971) American politician and jurist, US Supreme Court Justice (1937-71)
New York Times Co. v. United States 403 U.S. 713, 717 (1971) [concurring]
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/black-hugo/36400/feed/ 0 36400 https://wist.info/miller-walter-m/36056/ https://wist.info/miller-walter-m/36056/#respond Wed, 25 Jan 2017 18:32:23 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=36056 Ignorance is king. Many would not profit by his abdication. Many enrich themselves by means of his dark monarchy. They are his Court, and in his name they defraud and govern, enrich themselves and perpetuate their power. Even literacy they fear, for the written word is another channel of communication that might cause their enemies to become united. Their weapons are keen-honed, and they use them with skill. They will press the battle upon the world when their interests are threatened, and the violence which follows will last until the structure of society as it now exists is leveled to rubble, and a new society emerges. I am sorry: But that is how I see it.

Walter M. Miller Jr. (1923-1996) American writer
A Canticle for Leibowitz, “Fiat Lux,” ch. 20 (1959) ]]> https://wist.info/miller-walter-m/36056/feed/ 0 36056 https://wist.info/keynes-john-maynard/36036/ https://wist.info/keynes-john-maynard/36036/#respond Tue, 24 Jan 2017 15:01:14 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=36036 Comfort and habits let us be ready to forgo, but I am not ready for a creed which does not care how much it destroys the liberty and security of daily life, which uses deliberately the weapons of persecution, destruction and international strife. How can I admire a policy which finds a characteristic expression in spending millions to suborn spies in every family and group at home, and to stir up trouble abroad?

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) English economist
“A Short View of Russia” (1925) ]]> https://wist.info/keynes-john-maynard/36036/feed/ 0 36036 https://wist.info/robespierre-maximilien/35954/ https://wist.info/robespierre-maximilien/35954/#respond Mon, 16 Jan 2017 20:33:38 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=35954 The splendor of the goal of the French Revolution is simultaneously the source of our strength and of our weakness: our strength, because it gives us an ascendancy of truth over falsehood, and of public rights over private interests; our weakness, because it rallies against us all vicious men, all those who in their hearts seek to despoil the people . … It is necessary to stifle the domestic and foreign enemies of the Republic or perish with them. Now in these circumstances, the first maxim of our politics ought to be to lead the people by means of reason and the enemies of the people by terror. If the basis of popular government in time of peace is virtue, the basis of popular government in time of revolution is both virtue and terror: virtue without which terror is murderous, terror without which virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing else than swift, severe, indomitable justice; it flows, then, from virtue.

Maximilien Robespierre (1758-174) French lawyer, politician, revolutionary leader
Speech, National Convention (7 May 1794)
    (Source)

In a parallel thought, he wrote in On the Principles of Political Morality (1794):

If virtue be the spring of a popular government in times of peace, the spring of that government during a revolution is virtue combined with terror: virtue, without which terror is destructive; terror, without which virtue is impotent. Terror is only justice prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue; it is less a distinct principle than a natural consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing wants of the country. ]]> https://wist.info/robespierre-maximilien/35954/feed/ 0 35954 https://wist.info/bronte-emily/35868/ https://wist.info/bronte-emily/35868/#respond Fri, 30 Dec 2016 02:14:55 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=35868 The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don’t turn against him, they crush those beneath them.

Emily Brontë (1818-1848) British novelist, poet [pseud. Ellis Bell]
Wuthering Heights, ch. 11 [Heathcliff] (1847)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/bronte-emily/35868/feed/ 0 35868 https://wist.info/atkinson-brooks/35471/ https://wist.info/atkinson-brooks/35471/#respond Tue, 25 Oct 2016 02:49:58 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=35471 The power to tax is the power to rule.

Brooks Atkinson (1894-1984) American drama critic and journalist
Once Around the Sun, “March 1” (1951)
    (Source)

See also John Marshall. ]]> https://wist.info/atkinson-brooks/35471/feed/ 0 35471 https://wist.info/adams-john-quincy/35470/ https://wist.info/adams-john-quincy/35470/#respond Tue, 25 Oct 2016 02:45:03 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=35470 This hand, to tyrants ever sworn the foe,
For Freedom only deals the deadly blow;
Then sheathes in calm repose the vengeful blade,
For gentle peace in Freedom’s hallowed shade.

John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) US President (1825-29)
Written in an Album (1842) ]]> https://wist.info/adams-john-quincy/35470/feed/ 0 35470 https://wist.info/brin-david/35460/ https://wist.info/brin-david/35460/#respond Sat, 22 Oct 2016 04:03:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=35460 It’s said that “power corrupts,” but actually it’s more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. When they do act, they think of it as service, which has limits. The tyrant, though, seeks mastery, for which he is insatiable, implacable.

David Brin (b. 1950) American scientist and author
The Postman, ch. 14 (1985)

Often paraphrased: "It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power." See Frank Herbert. ]]> https://wist.info/brin-david/35460/feed/ 0 35460 https://wist.info/addison-joseph/34877/ https://wist.info/addison-joseph/34877/#respond Wed, 24 Aug 2016 00:18:21 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=34877 CATO: Content thyself to be obscurely good.
When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway,
The post of honour is a private station.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Cato, Act 4, sc. 4, l. 139ff (1713)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/addison-joseph/34877/feed/ 0 34877 https://wist.info/adams-john/34594/ https://wist.info/adams-john/34594/#respond Thu, 28 Jul 2016 04:16:30 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=34594 The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.




John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Essay (1765-09-30), “A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law,” No. 3, Boston Gazette
    (Source)

Originally written for the Sodalitas Club. ]]> https://wist.info/adams-john/34594/feed/ 0 34594 https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/34390/ https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/34390/#respond Wed, 06 Jul 2016 21:17:19 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=34390 The time to guard against corruption and tyranny is before they shall have gotten hold of us. It is better to keep the wolf out of the fold than to trust to drawing his teeth and talons after he shall have entered.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 13 (1782)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/34390/feed/ 0 34390 https://wist.info/madison-james/34291/ https://wist.info/madison-james/34291/#respond Mon, 20 Jun 2016 14:41:56 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=34291 Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations.




James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
Speech, Virginia Ratifying Convention (6 Jun 1788) ]]> https://wist.info/madison-james/34291/feed/ 0 34291 https://wist.info/white-eb/32790/ https://wist.info/white-eb/32790/#respond Thu, 25 Feb 2016 14:38:03 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=32790 I am inordinately proud these days of the quill, for it has shown itself, historically, to be the hypodermic which inoculates men and keeps the germ of freedom always in circulation, so that there are individuals in every time in every land who are the carriers, the Typhoid Mary’s, capable of infecting others by mere contact and example. These persons are feared by every tyrant — who shows his fear by burning the books and destroying the individuals.

E. B. White (1899-1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
“Freedom” (Jul 1940) ]]> https://wist.info/white-eb/32790/feed/ 0 32790 https://wist.info/roosevelt-franklin-delano/32709/ https://wist.info/roosevelt-franklin-delano/32709/#respond Thu, 18 Feb 2016 15:03:09 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=32709 We all know that books burn — yet we have the greater knowledge that books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can abolish memory. No man and no force can put thought in a concentration camp forever. No man and no force can take from the world the ideas that embody man’s eternal fight against tyranny of every kind. In this war, we know, books are weapons.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933–1945)
Letter (1942-04-23), “Message to American Booksellers Association,” Annual Banquet (1942-05-06), Astor Hotel, New York City
    (Source)

The letter was delivered with a speech by Archibald MacLeish (appointed by Roosevelt as Librarian of Congress, 1939-1944) titled "A Free Man's Books." This was shortly after FDR named April 17 as "Victory Book Day".

This quotation was turned into a poster by S. Broder, published by the US Office of War Information in 1942. ]]> https://wist.info/roosevelt-franklin-delano/32709/feed/ 0 32709 https://wist.info/lewis-sinclair/31571/ https://wist.info/lewis-sinclair/31571/#respond Tue, 24 Nov 2015 15:15:35 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=31571 Under a tyranny, most friends are a liability. One quarter of them turn “reasonable” and become your enemies, one quarter are afraid to speak, and one quarter are killed and you die with them. But the blessed final quarter keep you alive.

Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) American novelist, playwright
It Can’t Happen Here (1935) ]]> https://wist.info/lewis-sinclair/31571/feed/ 0 31571 https://wist.info/goldwater-barry/31524/ https://wist.info/goldwater-barry/31524/#respond Thu, 19 Nov 2015 16:46:57 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=31524 Equality, rightly understood, as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences. Wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.

Barry Goldwater (1909-1998) American politician
Speech, accepting the GOP Presidential Nomination, San Francisco (16 Jul 1964) ]]> https://wist.info/goldwater-barry/31524/feed/ 0 31524 https://wist.info/heinlein-robert-a/31480/ https://wist.info/heinlein-robert-a/31480/#respond Tue, 17 Nov 2015 14:23:25 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=31480 A well run tyranny is almost as scarce as an efficient democracy.

Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Friday [Dr. Baldwin] (1982) ]]> https://wist.info/heinlein-robert-a/31480/feed/ 0 31480 https://wist.info/goldwater-barry/31345/ https://wist.info/goldwater-barry/31345/#respond Thu, 12 Nov 2015 14:18:48 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=31345 Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed.

Barry Goldwater (1909-1998) American politician
Speech, accepting the GOP Presidential Nomination, San Francisco (16 Jul 1964)
    (Source)

See Acton. ]]> https://wist.info/goldwater-barry/31345/feed/ 0 31345 https://wist.info/inge-william-ralph/31232/ https://wist.info/inge-william-ralph/31232/#respond Mon, 02 Nov 2015 14:18:05 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=31232 If an autocracy does not rest on the army, which leads to the chaos of praetorianism, it must rely on ‘panem et circenses.’ Hence it has some of the worst faults of democracy, without its advantages.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919) ]]> https://wist.info/inge-william-ralph/31232/feed/ 0 31232 https://wist.info/brecht-berthold/30895/ https://wist.info/brecht-berthold/30895/#respond Thu, 01 Oct 2015 15:05:03 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30895 POLLY PEACHUM: The law is simply and solely made for the exploitation of those who do not understand it or of those who, for naked need, cannot obey it.

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) German poet, playwright, director, dramaturgist
Die Dreigroschenoper [The Three-Penny Opera], Act 3, sc. 1 (1928)

Alt. trans.: "The law was made for one thing alone, for the exploitation of those who don't understand it, or are prevented by naked misery from obeying it." ]]> https://wist.info/brecht-berthold/30895/feed/ 0 30895 https://wist.info/mill-john-stuart/30785/ https://wist.info/mill-john-stuart/30785/#respond Tue, 22 Sep 2015 13:42:16 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30785 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.

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist
On Liberty, ch. 3 “Of Individuality, as One of the Elements of Well-Being” (1859)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/mill-john-stuart/30785/feed/ 0 30785 https://wist.info/douglass-frederick/30630/ https://wist.info/douglass-frederick/30630/#respond Thu, 10 Sep 2015 15:20:27 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30630 Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them. and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) American abolitionist, orator, writer
Speech (1857-08-04) on West India Emancipation, Ontario County Agricultural Society fairgrounds, Canandaigua, New York
    (Source)

Commemorating the anniversary of the emancipation of British West Indian slaves in 1834. ]]> https://wist.info/douglass-frederick/30630/feed/ 0 30630 https://wist.info/taft-william/30231/ https://wist.info/taft-william/30231/#respond Mon, 17 Aug 2015 14:38:11 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30231 No tendency is quite so strong in human nature as the desire to lay down rules of conduct for other people.

William Howard Taft (1857-1930) US President (1909-13) and Chief Justice (1921-1930)
Ladies Home Journal (May 1919)

Regarding the temperance movement. Quoted in Robert J. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone (1992). ]]> https://wist.info/taft-william/30231/feed/ 0 30231 https://wist.info/mencken-hl/30197/ https://wist.info/mencken-hl/30197/#respond Wed, 12 Aug 2015 15:34:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30197 I believe any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave.

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
“Why Liberty?” Chicago Tribune (30 Jan 1927) ]]> https://wist.info/mencken-hl/30197/feed/ 0 30197 https://wist.info/tuchman-barbara/29578/ https://wist.info/tuchman-barbara/29578/#respond Tue, 09 Jun 2015 13:12:41 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=29578 Every successful revolution puts on in time the robes of the tyrant it has deposed.

Barbara W. Tuchman (1912-1989) American historian and author
Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-1945, ch. 8 (1972)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/tuchman-barbara/29578/feed/ 0 29578 https://wist.info/adams-abigail/29540/ https://wist.info/adams-abigail/29540/#comments Fri, 05 Jun 2015 20:39:31 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=29540 That your Sex are Naturally Tyrannical is a Truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute, but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of Master for the more tender and endearing one of Friend. Why then, not put it out of the power of the vicious and the Lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity. Men of Sense in all Ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your Sex. Regard us then as Beings placed by providence under your protection and in immitation of the Supreem Being make use of that power only for our happiness.

Abigail Adams (1744-1818) American correspondent, First Lady (1797-1801)
Letter (1776-03-31) to John Adams
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/adams-abigail/29540/feed/ 1 29540 https://wist.info/adams-abigail/29421/ https://wist.info/adams-abigail/29421/#respond Fri, 22 May 2015 15:08:09 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=29421 I long to hear that you have declared an independancy — and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.

Abigail Adams (1744-1818) American correspondent, First Lady (1797-1801)
Letter (1776-03-31) to John Adams
    (Source)

She continues here.

John Adams' response to her was more than a bit flippant, though he elsewhere had more serious thoughts about the role of women in civil authority. ]]> https://wist.info/adams-abigail/29421/feed/ 0 29421 https://wist.info/adams-abigail/29348/ https://wist.info/adams-abigail/29348/#respond Fri, 15 May 2015 12:06:31 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=29348 I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature; and that power, whether vested in many or a few, is ever grasping, and, like the grave, cries, “Give, give!” The great fish swallow up the small; and he who is most strenuous for the rights of the people, when vested with power, is as eager after the prerogatives of government. You tell me of degrees of perfection to which human nature is capable of arriving, and I believe it, but at the same time lament that our admiration should arise from the scarcity of the instances.

Abigail Adams (1744-1818) American correspondent, First Lady (1797-1801)
Letter to John Adams (27 Nov 1775) ]]> https://wist.info/adams-abigail/29348/feed/ 0 29348 https://wist.info/mencken-hl/28302/ https://wist.info/mencken-hl/28302/#respond Thu, 12 Feb 2015 16:01:41 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=28302 The Bill of Rights was designed trustfully to prohibit forever two of the favorite crimes of all known governments: the seizure of private property without adequate compensation and the invasion of the citizen’s liberty without justifiable cause and due process.

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
“On Government,” Prejudices: Fourth Series (1924) ]]> https://wist.info/mencken-hl/28302/feed/ 0 28302 https://wist.info/camus-albert/27884/ https://wist.info/camus-albert/27884/#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2015 14:53:13 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=27884 The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience. It would be easy, however, to destroy that good conscience by shouting to them: if you want the happiness of the people, let them speak out and tell what kind of happiness they want and what kind they don’t want! But, in truth, the very ones who make use of such alibis know they are lies; they leave to their intellectuals on duty the chore of believing in them and of proving that religion, patriotism, and justice need for their survival the sacrifice of freedom.

Albert Camus (1913-1960) Algerian-French novelist, essayist, playwright
“Homage to an Exile” (1955)

Published as an essay in Actuelles III, originally a speech (7 Dec 1955) at a banquet in honor of President Eduardo Santos, editor of El Tiempo, driven out of Columbia by a dictatorship". Reprinted in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death (1960). ]]> https://wist.info/camus-albert/27884/feed/ 1 27884 https://wist.info/huxley-aldous/27855/ https://wist.info/huxley-aldous/27855/#respond Wed, 31 Dec 2014 18:24:19 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=27855 So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly rise and make them miserable.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Ends and Means (1937) ]]> https://wist.info/huxley-aldous/27855/feed/ 0 27855 https://wist.info/blackstone-william/27776/ https://wist.info/blackstone-william/27776/#respond Wed, 17 Dec 2014 14:08:32 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=27776 The rack, or question, to extort a confession from criminals, is a practice of a different nature; […] an engine of the state, not of law.

William Blackstone (1723-1780) British jurist, judge, politician
Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book 4 “Of Public Wrongs,” ch. 25 “Arraignment” (1769) ]]> https://wist.info/blackstone-william/27776/feed/ 0 27776 https://wist.info/eisenhower-dwight/27713/ https://wist.info/eisenhower-dwight/27713/#respond Wed, 10 Dec 2014 14:13:54 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=27713 Un-American activity cannot be prevented or routed out by employing un-American methods; to preserve freedom we must use the tools that freedom provides.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
The White House Years: Mandate for Change: 1953-1956: A Personal Account (1963) ]]> https://wist.info/eisenhower-dwight/27713/feed/ 0 27713 https://wist.info/burgh-james/27662/ https://wist.info/burgh-james/27662/#respond Thu, 04 Dec 2014 13:51:39 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=27662 That all history shows the necessity, in order to the preservation of liberty, of every subjects having a watchful eye on the conduct of Kings, Ministers, and Parliament, and of every subjects being not only secured, but encouraged in alarming his fellow subjects on occasion of every attempt upon public liberty.

James Burgh (1714-1775) British politician and writer
Political Disquisitions, Book 1 “Of Government, briefly,” ch. 9 “Of the Liberty of Speech and Writing on Political Subjects” (1774)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/burgh-james/27662/feed/ 0 27662 https://wist.info/burgh-james/27476/ https://wist.info/burgh-james/27476/#respond Thu, 13 Nov 2014 13:33:40 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=27476 But, such is the perverse disposition of man, the most unruly of all animals, that this most useful institution has been generally debauched into an engine of oppression and tyranny over those, whom it was expressly and solely established to defend. And to such a degree has this evil prevailed, that in almost every age and country, the government has been the principal grievance of the people, as appears too dreadfully manifest, from the bloody and deformed pages of history. For what is general history, but a view of the abuses of power committed by those, who have got it into their hands, to the subjugation, and destruction of the human species, to the ruin of the general peace and happiness, and turning the Almighty’s fair and good world into a butchery of its inhabitants, for the gratification of the unbounded ambition of a few, who, in overthrowing the felicity of their fellow-creatures, have confounded their own?

James Burgh (1714-1775) British politician and writer
Political Disquisitions, Book 1 “Of Government, briefly,” ch. 1 (1774)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/burgh-james/27476/feed/ 0 27476 https://wist.info/voltaire/27386/ https://wist.info/voltaire/27386/#respond Tue, 04 Nov 2014 13:36:59 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=27386 If I had to choose, I should detest the tyranny of one man less than that of many. A despot always has his good moments; an assembly of despots never.

Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
Philosophical Dictionary, “Tyranny” (1764) [tr. Gay (1962)]
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/voltaire/27386/feed/ 0 27386 https://wist.info/adams-john/27193/ https://wist.info/adams-john/27193/#respond Thu, 16 Oct 2014 12:14:56 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=27193 Power always Sincerely, conscientiously, de très bon Foi, believes itself Right. Power always thinks it has a great Soul and vast Views, beyond the Comprehension of the Weak; and that it is doing God Service when it is violating all his Laws.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1816-02-02) to Thomas Jefferson
    (Source)

De très bon foi = "very candidly." ]]> https://wist.info/adams-john/27193/feed/ 0 27193 https://wist.info/hayden-teresa-nielsen/26798/ https://wist.info/hayden-teresa-nielsen/26798/#respond Fri, 05 Sep 2014 16:01:23 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=26798 If there is no willingness to use force to defend civil society, it’s civil society that goes away, not force.

Teresa Nielsen Hayden (b. 1956) American editor, writer, essayist
Making Light, “Commonplaces”
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/hayden-teresa-nielsen/26798/feed/ 0 26798 https://wist.info/thucydides/26563/ https://wist.info/thucydides/26563/#respond Tue, 19 Aug 2014 12:46:06 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=26563 The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.

Thucydides (c. 460-400 BC) Greek historian
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 5, ch. 89 [tr. Crawley and Wick (1982)] ]]> https://wist.info/thucydides/26563/feed/ 0 26563 https://wist.info/francis-i-pope/26220/ https://wist.info/francis-i-pope/26220/#respond Wed, 30 Jul 2014 12:53:39 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=26220 While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules.

Francis I (1936-2025) Argentinian Catholic Pope (2013–2025) [b. Jorge Mario Bergoglio]
Evangelii Gaudium, sec. 56 (24 Nov 2013)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/francis-i-pope/26220/feed/ 0 26220 https://wist.info/straczynski-joe/25787/ https://wist.info/straczynski-joe/25787/#respond Tue, 17 Jun 2014 12:40:27 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=25787 G’KAR: No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by the force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments, and tyrants, and armies can not stand.

J. Michael (Joe) Straczynski (b. 1954) American screenwriter, producer, author [a/k/a "JMS"]
Babylon 5, 2×20 “The Long, Twilight Struggle” (18 Oct 1995) ]]> https://wist.info/straczynski-joe/25787/feed/ 0 25787 https://wist.info/douglass-frederick/25318/ https://wist.info/douglass-frederick/25318/#respond Mon, 12 May 2014 16:11:43 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=25318 Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, founded in injustice and wrong, are sure to tremble, if men are allowed to reason of righteousness, temperance, and of a judgment to come in their presence.

Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) American abolitionist, orator, writer
“A Plea for Freedom of Speech in Boston,” speech (9 Dec 1860)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/douglass-frederick/25318/feed/ 0 25318 https://wist.info/hall-robert/25160/ https://wist.info/hall-robert/25160/#respond Tue, 22 Apr 2014 13:02:32 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=25160 Mankind are apt to be strongly prejudiced in favor of whatever is countenanced by antiquity, enforced by authority, and recommended by custom. The pleasure of acquiescing in the decision of others is by most men so preferred to the toil and hazard of inquiry, and so few are either able or disposed to examine for themselves, that the voice of law will generally be taken for the dictates of justice.

Robert Hall (1764-1831) English Baptist minister
“Fragment on Village Preaching,” sec. 2
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/hall-robert/25160/feed/ 0 25160 https://wist.info/pasternak-boris/24146/ https://wist.info/pasternak-boris/24146/#respond Thu, 06 Mar 2014 14:12:46 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=24146 I think that if the beast who sleeps in man could be held down by threats — any kind of threat, whether of jail or of retribution after death — then the highest emblem of humanity would be the lion tamer in the circus with his whip, not the prophet who sacrificed himself. But don’t you see, this is just the point — what has for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel but an inward music: the irresistible power of unarmed truth, the powerful attraction of its example.

Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) Russian poet, novelist, and literary translator
Doctor Zhivago [До́ктор Жива́го], Part 1, ch. 2 “A Girl from a Different World” [Nikolai] (1955) [tr. Hayward & Harari (1958), US ed.]
    (Source)

Alternate translations:



I think that if the beast who sleeps in man could be held down by threats -- any kind of threat, whether of jail or of retribution after death -- then the highest emblem of humanity would be the lion tamer in the circus with his whip, not the self-sacrificing preacher. But don’t you see, this is just the point -- what has for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel but an inward music: the irresistible power of unarmed truth, the attraction of its example.
[tr. Hayward & Harari (1958), UK ed.]




I think that if the beast who sleeps in man could be held down by threats -- any kind of threat, whether of jail or of retribution after death -- then the highest emblem of humanity would be the lion tamer in the circus with his whip, not the prophet who sacrificed himself. But this is just the point -- what has for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel, but an inward music -- the irresistible power of unarmed truth.
[tr. Hayward & Harrai (1958); edited version quoted by Ronald Reagan, Moscow State University (1988-05-31)]




I think that if the beast dormant in man could be stopped by the threat of, whatever, the lockup or requital beyond the grave, the highest emblem of mankind would be a lion tamer with his whip, and not the preacher who sacrifices himself. But the point is precisely this, that for centuries man has been raised above the animals and borne aloft not by the rod, but by music: the irresistibility of the unarmed truth, the attraction of its example.
[tr. Pevear & Volokhonsky (2010), "A Girl from a Different Circle"]


]]> https://wist.info/pasternak-boris/24146/feed/ 0 24146 https://wist.info/acton-lord/23846/ https://wist.info/acton-lord/23846/#respond Tue, 18 Feb 2014 14:50:18 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=23846 It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses which, if it is called into play, the minority can seldom resist.

John Dalberg, Lord Acton (1834-1902) British historian, politician, writer
Speech (1877-02-28), “The History of Freedom in Antiquity,” Bridgenorth Institute
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/acton-lord/23846/feed/ 0 23846 https://wist.info/shaw-george-bernard/23782/ https://wist.info/shaw-george-bernard/23782/#respond Tue, 11 Feb 2014 13:58:14 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=23782 If the people cannot govern themselves, they must be governed by somebody.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish playwright and critic
Annajanska (1919) ]]> https://wist.info/shaw-george-bernard/23782/feed/ 0 23782 https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/23780/ https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/23780/#respond Tue, 11 Feb 2014 13:56:15 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=23780 CAESAR: Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o’ nights:
Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much; such men are dangerous.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Julius Caesar, Act 1, sc. 2, l. 202ff (1.2.202-205) (1599)
    (Source)

See Plutarch. ]]> https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/23780/feed/ 0 23780 https://wist.info/bakunin-mikhail/23085/ https://wist.info/bakunin-mikhail/23085/#respond Tue, 03 Dec 2013 13:41:37 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=23085 Take the most radical revolutionist and place him upon the all-Russian throne or give him dictatorial power, for which so many of our green revolutionists daydream, and within a year he will have become worse than the Emperor himself.

Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876) Russian anarchist, political theorist
Science and the Urgent Revolutionary Task (1870) ]]> https://wist.info/bakunin-mikhail/23085/feed/ 0 23085 https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/22061/ https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/22061/#respond Tue, 13 Aug 2013 12:36:24 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=22061 Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Document (1776-07-02), “Declaration of Independence”
    (Source)

As modified and approved by the Continental Congress. Jefferson's "original rough draft" is very similar:



Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light & transient causes: and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. but when a long train of abuses & usurpations, begun at a distinguished period, & pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to subject them to arbitrary power, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government & to provide new guards for their future security.


In that draft, the word "subject" was changed to "reduce." The phrase "to arbitrary power" was changed by Jefferson in following drafts to "under absolute power," and then edited by Benjamin Franklin to "under absolute Despotism," which was the final form it took. ]]> https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/22061/feed/ 0 22061 https://wist.info/steele-richard/21389/ https://wist.info/steele-richard/21389/#respond Tue, 11 Jun 2013 13:14:55 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=21389 It has often been a solid Grief to me, when I have reflected on this glorious Nation, which is the Scene of publick Happiness and Liberty, that there are still Crowds of private Tyrants, against whom there neither is any Law now in Being, nor can there be invented any by the Wit of Man. These cruel Men are ill-natured husbands.

Richard Steele (1672-1729) Anglo-Irish writer, journalist, playwright, politician
Essay (1710-03-22), The Tatler, No. 149
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/steele-richard/21389/feed/ 0 21389 https://wist.info/roosevelt-theodore/21070/ https://wist.info/roosevelt-theodore/21070/#respond Tue, 07 May 2013 13:41:35 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=21070 He had not learned that the majority in a democracy has no more right to tyrannize over a minority than, under a different system, the latter would have to oppress the former; and that, if there is a moral principle at stake, the saying that the voice of the people is the voice of God may be quite as untrue, and do quite as much mischief, as the old theory of the divine right of kings. The distinguishing feature of our American governmental system is the freedom of the individual; it is quite as important to prevent his being oppressed by many men as it is to save him from the tyranny of one.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Thomas Hart Benton, ch. 6 (1886)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/roosevelt-theodore/21070/feed/ 0 21070 https://wist.info/roosevelt-theodore/20832/ https://wist.info/roosevelt-theodore/20832/#respond Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:48:57 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=20832 Of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of a plutocracy.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Autobiography, ch. 22 “The Big Stick and the Square Deal” (1913)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/roosevelt-theodore/20832/feed/ 0 20832 https://wist.info/macaulay-thomas-babington/20651/ https://wist.info/macaulay-thomas-babington/20651/#respond Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:21:12 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=20651 Anarchy is the sure consequence of tyranny.

Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician
“A Conversation Between Mr. Abraham Cowley and Mr. John Milton,” Knight’s Quarterly Journal (Aug 1824) ]]> https://wist.info/macaulay-thomas-babington/20651/feed/ 0 20651 https://wist.info/colton-charles-caleb/20403/ https://wist.info/colton-charles-caleb/20403/#respond Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:54:22 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=20403 Attempts at reform, when they fail, strengthen despotism; as he that struggles tightens those cords he does not succeed in breaking.

Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 440 (1820)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/colton-charles-caleb/20403/feed/ 0 20403 https://wist.info/johnson-samuel/18000/ https://wist.info/johnson-samuel/18000/#respond Mon, 21 May 2012 12:46:46 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=18000 Power is always gradually stealing away from the many to the few because the few are more vigilant and consistent; it still contracts to a smaller number, till in time it centres in a single person.
Thus all the forms of governments instituted among mankind, perpetually tend towards monarchy; and power, however diffused through the whole community is, by negligence or corruption, commotion or distress, reposed at last in the chief magistrate.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1753-04-10), The Adventurer, No. 45
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/johnson-samuel/18000/feed/ 0 18000 https://wist.info/berry-wendell/17687/ https://wist.info/berry-wendell/17687/#respond Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:03:42 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=17687 It is impossible to think that constitutional government can be suspended in a time of danger, in deference to the greater “efficiency” of centralized power, and then easily or quickly restored. Efficiency may be a political virtue, but only if strictly limited. Our Constitution, by its separation of powers and its system of checks and balances, acts as a restraint upon efficiency by denying exclusive power to any branch of government. The logic of governmental efficiency, unchecked, runs straight on, not only to dictatorship, but also to torture, assassination, and other abominations.

Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Essay (2003-02-09), “A Citizen’s Response,” sec. 3, Citizenship Papers (2003)
    (Source)

This passage did not appear in the original (abridged) full-page ad in the New York Times (2003-02-06) or the Orion Magazine (2003-03/04) publication of the essay. ]]> https://wist.info/berry-wendell/17687/feed/ 0 17687 https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/17353/ https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/17353/#respond Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:44:57 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=17353 Gentlemen, you can never make me believe — no statute can ever convince me, that there is any infinite Being in this universe who hates an honest man. It is impossible to satisfy me that there is any God, or can be any God, who holds in abhorrence a soul that has the courage to express his thought. Neither can the whole world convince me that any man should be punished, either in this world or in the next, for being candid with his fellow-men. If you send men to the penitentiary for speaking their thoughts, for endeavoring to enlighten their fellows, then the penitentiary will become a place of honor, and the victim will step from it — not stained, not disgraced, but clad in robes of glory.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Trial of C.B. Reynolds for blasphemy (May 1887)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/17353/feed/ 0 17353 https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/17268/ https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/17268/#respond Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:13:12 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=17268 What is blasphemy? I will give you a definition; I will give you my thought upon this subject. What is real blasphemy?
To live on the unpaid labor of other men — that is blasphemy.
To enslave your fellow-man, to put chains upon his body — that is blasphemy.
To enslave the minds of men, to put manacles upon the brain, padlocks upon the lips — that is blasphemy.
To deny what you believe to be true, to admit to be true what you believe to be a lie — that is blasphemy.
To strike the weak and unprotected, in order that you may gain the applause of the ignorant and superstitious mob — that is blasphemy.
To persecute the intelligent few, at the command of the ignorant many — that is blasphemy.
To forge chains, to build dungeons, for your honest fellow-men — that is blasphemy.
To pollute the souls of children with the dogma of eternal pain — that is blasphemy.
To violate your conscience — that is blasphemy.
The jury that gives an unjust verdict, and the judge who pronounces an unjust sentence, are blasphemers.
The man who bows to public opinion against his better judgment and against his honest conviction, is a blasphemer.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Trial of C.B. Reynolds for blasphemy (May 1887)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/17268/feed/ 0 17268 https://wist.info/milton-john/16613/ https://wist.info/milton-john/16613/#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:54:51 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=16613 So spake the Fiend, and with necessity,
The Tyrant’s plea, excus’d his devilish deeds.

John Milton (1608-1674) English poet
Paradise Lost, 4.383 (1667) ]]> https://wist.info/milton-john/16613/feed/ 1 16613 https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/15040/ https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/15040/#comments Mon, 04 Jul 2011 16:33:54 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=15040 [T]imid men […] prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1796-04-24) to Philip Mazzei
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/15040/feed/ 1 15040 https://wist.info/pascal-blaise/14707/ https://wist.info/pascal-blaise/14707/#respond Mon, 23 May 2011 06:58:20 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=14707 Justice without might is helpless; might without justice is tyrannical.

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) French scientist and philosopher
Pensées, #298 (1670) [tr. Trotter (1931)] ]]> https://wist.info/pascal-blaise/14707/feed/ 0 14707 https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/14703/ https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/14703/#respond Mon, 23 May 2011 06:50:28 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=14703 I hold it, therefore, certain, that to open the doors of truth, and to fortify the habit of testing everything by reason, are the most effectual manacles we can rivet on the hands of our successors to prevent their manacling the people with their own consent.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1804-06-28) to John Tyler
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/14703/feed/ 0 14703 https://wist.info/stowe-harriet-beecher/13424/ https://wist.info/stowe-harriet-beecher/13424/#respond Wed, 05 Jan 2011 14:01:42 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=13424 Is man ever a creature to be trusted with wholly irresponsible power? And does not the slave system, by denying the slave all legal right of testimony, make every individual owner an irresponsible despot? Can anybody fall to make the inference what the practical result will be? If there is, as we admit, a public sentiment among you, men of honor, justice and humanity, is there not also another kind of public sentiment among the ruffian, the brutal and debased? And cannot the ruffian, the brutal, the debased, by slave law, own just as many slaves as the best and purest? Are the honorable, the just, the high-minded and compassionate, the majority anywhere in this world?

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) American author
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Conclusion (1852)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/stowe-harriet-beecher/13424/feed/ 0 13424 https://wist.info/radhakrishnan-sarvepalli/13328/ https://wist.info/radhakrishnan-sarvepalli/13328/#respond Wed, 22 Dec 2010 19:21:46 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=13328 When religion becomes organzied, man ceases to be free. It is not God that is worshiped but the group or the authority that claims to speak in his name. Sin becomes disobedience to authority and not violation of integrity.

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) Indian philosopher, statesman
East and West: Some Reflections, Preface (1955)
    (Source)

Variants:
• "It is not God that is worshiped but the authority that claims to speak in His name."
• An expanded version in Religion, Science and Culture, ch. 3 "The World Communities of Ideals" (1965) includes an inserted second sentence: "If we think that it is a question of life or death -- what concept of God we accept -- then our hearts are filled with fury."
]]> https://wist.info/radhakrishnan-sarvepalli/13328/feed/ 0 13328 https://wist.info/stowe-harriet-beecher/13193/ https://wist.info/stowe-harriet-beecher/13193/#respond Wed, 15 Dec 2010 18:22:13 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=13193 The number of those men who know how to use wholly irresponsible power humanely and generously is small.

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) American author
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ch. 29 “The Unprotected” (1852)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/stowe-harriet-beecher/13193/feed/ 0 13193 https://wist.info/adams-john/12456/ https://wist.info/adams-john/12456/#respond Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:20:03 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=12456 As the Happiness of the People is the sole End of Government, So the Consent of the People is the only Foundation of it, in Reason, Morality, and the natural Fitness of things: and therefore every Act of Government, every Exercise of Sovereignty, against, or without, the Consent of the People, is Injustice, Usurpation, and Tyranny.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
“A Proclamation by the General Court of Massachusetts” (1776-01-19)
    (Source)

The document was begun by the House on 1775-12-18 to outline reasons why judicial officers appointed by the Council ought to be accepted by counties (more background here). The proclamation was approved by the House on 1776-01-23, and printed in the Boston Gazette on 1776-02-12.

In Adams' manuscript of the document it reads, "As the Happiness of the People alone." ]]> https://wist.info/adams-john/12456/feed/ 0 12456 https://wist.info/einstein-albert/12379/ https://wist.info/einstein-albert/12379/#respond Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:45:49 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=12379 Any government is in itself an evil insofar as it carries within it the tendency to deteriorate into tyranny. However, except for a very small number of anarchists, everyone of us is convinced that civilized society cannot exist without a government.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
“A Reply to the Soviet Scientists” (Dec 1947), Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (Feb 1948)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/einstein-albert/12379/feed/ 0 12379 https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/12106/ https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/12106/#respond Mon, 13 Sep 2010 18:07:24 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=12106 He who endeavors to control the mind by force is a tyrant, and he who submits is a slave.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
The Philosophy of Ingersoll, “Fragments” (1906) [ed. Goldthwaite] ]]> https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/12106/feed/ 0 12106 https://wist.info/eldridge-paul/8491/ https://wist.info/eldridge-paul/8491/#respond Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:39:16 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=8491 Democracy stands between two tyrannies: the one which it has overthrown and the one into which it will develop.

Paul Eldridge (1888-1982) American educator, novelist, poet
Maxims for a Modern Man, #642 (1965)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/eldridge-paul/8491/feed/ 0 8491 https://wist.info/havel-vaclav/7564/ https://wist.info/havel-vaclav/7564/#respond Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:55:01 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=7564 A state that denies its citizens their basic rights becomes a danger to its neighbors as well: internal arbitrary rule will be reflected in arbitrary external relations. The suppression of public opinion, the abolition of public competition for power and its public exercise opens the way for the state power to arm itself in any way it sees fit. A manipulated population can be misused in serving any military adventure whatever. Unreliability in some areas arouses justifiable fear of unreliability in everything. A state that does not hesitate to lie to its own people will not hesitate to lie to other states.

Václav Havel (1936-2011) Czech playwright, essayist, dissident, politician
“An Anatomy of Reticence [Anatomie jedné zdrženlivosti],” sec. 9, no. 5 (1985-04) [tr. Kohák (1986)]
    (Source)

First reprinted in Cross Currents: A Yearbook of Central European Culture #5 (1986). Reprinted here in Living in Truth: twenty-two essays published on the occasion of the award of the Erasmus Prize to Václav Havel, Part 1, ch. 6 (1986). ]]> https://wist.info/havel-vaclav/7564/feed/ 0 7564 https://wist.info/roosevelt-theodore/6733/ https://wist.info/roosevelt-theodore/6733/#respond Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:21:35 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6733 In the final result, it mattered not one whit whether the movement was in favor of one class or of another. The outcome was equally fatal, whether the country fell into the hands of a wealthy oligarchy which exploited the poor or whether it fell under the domination of a turbulent mob which plundered the rich. In both cases there resulted violent alternations between tyranny and disorder, and a final complete loss of liberty to all citizens — destruction in the end overtaking the class which had for the moment been victorious as well as that which had momentarily been defeated. The death-knell of the Republic had rung as soon as the active power became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Speech (1903-09-07), “The Square Deal,” Labor Day, New York State Agricultural Association, New York State Fair, Syracuse
    (Source)

On the fate of historic republics. ]]> https://wist.info/roosevelt-theodore/6733/feed/ 0 6733 https://wist.info/adams-john/6140/ https://wist.info/adams-john/6140/#respond Fri, 01 Aug 2008 04:45:02 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6140 Let the human Mind loose. It must be loose; it will be loose. Superstition and Despotism cannot confine it.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1816-11-13) to John Quincy Adams
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/adams-john/6140/feed/ 0 6140 https://wist.info/adams-samuel/6089/ https://wist.info/adams-samuel/6089/#respond Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:25:40 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6089 We must not conclude merely upon a man’s haranguing upon liberty, and using the charming sound, that he is fit to be trusted with the liberties of his country. It is not unfrequent to hear men declaim loudly upon liberty, who, if we may judge by the whole tenor of their actions, mean nothing else by it but their own liberty, — to oppress without control or the restraint of laws all who are poorer or weaker than themselves.

Samuel Adams (1722-1803) American revolutionary, statesman
Essay, The Advertiser (1748)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/adams-samuel/6089/feed/ 0 6089 https://wist.info/adams-john/6069/ https://wist.info/adams-john/6069/#respond Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:23:31 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6069 Obsta principiis, nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people. When the people give way, their deceivers, betrayers, and destroyers press upon them so fast, that there is no resisting afterwards.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Essay (1775-02-06), “Novanglus,” No. 3, Boston Gazette
    (Source)

The Latin means to resist the first approaches or encroachments of a problem.

This series of essays was written by Adams under the pseudonym of "Novanglus" (Latin for "New England") responding to essays from his past friend Daniel Leonard as "Massachusettensis" on colonial leadership and what the proper relationship was between the American colonies and Britain. ]]> https://wist.info/adams-john/6069/feed/ 0 6069 https://wist.info/adams-john/6057/ https://wist.info/adams-john/6057/#respond Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:05:53 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6057 Cities may be rebuilt, and a People reduced to Poverty, may acquire fresh Property: But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever. When the People once surrender their share in the Legislature, and their Right of defending the Limitations upon the Government, and of resisting every Encroachment upon them, they can never regain it.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1775-07-07) to Abigail Adams
    (Source)

On standing up to the British after the burning of Charleston, South Carolina. ]]> https://wist.info/adams-john/6057/feed/ 0 6057 https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/6045/ https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/6045/#respond Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:40:45 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6045 it would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights; that confidence is every where the parent of despotism; free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power; that our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no farther, our confidence may go. […] In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Document (1798), “Kentucky Resolutions,” Resolution 9
    (Source)

In protest of the Alien and Sedition Acts. ]]> https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/6045/feed/ 0 6045 https://wist.info/adams-john/6021/ https://wist.info/adams-john/6021/#respond Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:09:55 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6021 There is Danger from all Men. The only Maxim of a free Government, ought to be to trust no Man living, with Power to endanger the public Liberty.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Diary (1772, Spring), “Notes for a Oration Braintree”
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/adams-john/6021/feed/ 0 6021 https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/5990/ https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/5990/#respond Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:30:08 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5990 No orthodox church ever had power that it did not endeavor to make people think its way by force and flame.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Trial of C.B. Reynolds for blasphemy (May 1887)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/5990/feed/ 0 5990 https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/5724/ https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/5724/#respond Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:06:35 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5724 How has the church in every age, when in authority, defended itself? Always by a statute against blasphemy, against argument, against free speech. And there never was such a statute that did not stain the book that it was in and that did not certify to the savagery of the men who passed it.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Trial of C.B. Reynolds for blasphemy (May 1887)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/5724/feed/ 0 5724 https://wist.info/macaulay-thomas-babington/5694/ https://wist.info/macaulay-thomas-babington/5694/#respond Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:07:25 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5694 Nothing is so galling to a people, not broken in from the birth, as a paternal or, in other words, a meddling government, a government which tells them what to read and say and eat and drink and wear.

Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician
Southey’s Colloquies on Society (1830) ]]> https://wist.info/macaulay-thomas-babington/5694/feed/ 0 5694 https://wist.info/lao-tzu/5666/ https://wist.info/lao-tzu/5666/#respond Thu, 28 Feb 2008 11:03:50 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5666 Of the best rulers
The people (only) know that they exist;
The next best they love and praise;
The next they fear;
And the next they revile.
When they do not command the people’s faith,
Some will lose faith in them,
And then they resort to oaths!
But (of the best) when their task is accomplished, their work done,
The people all remark, “We have done it ourselves.”

Lao-tzu (604?-531? BC) Chinese philosopher, poet [also Lao-tse, Laozi]
The Wisdom of Laotse, ch 17 (1948) [tr. Lin Yutang]

Alt. trans. [Tao-te Ching tr. Wing-Tsit Chan]:
"The best are those whose existence is merely known by the people.
The next best are those who are loved and praised.
The next are those who are feared. And the next are those who are reviled.
The great rulers accomplish their task; they complete their work.
Nevertheless their people say that they simply follow Nature." ]]> https://wist.info/lao-tzu/5666/feed/ 0 5666 https://wist.info/paine-thomas/5655/ https://wist.info/paine-thomas/5655/#respond Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:14:53 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5655 Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) American political philosopher and writer
“The American Crisis” #1 (19 Dec 1776) ]]> https://wist.info/paine-thomas/5655/feed/ 0 5655 https://wist.info/hand-learned/5409/ https://wist.info/hand-learned/5409/#respond Wed, 31 Oct 2007 13:54:12 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5409 And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial of liberty, and leads straight to its overthrow. A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few; as we have learned to our sorrow.

Learned Hand (1872-1961) American jurist
“The Spirit of Liberty,” speech, “I Am an American Day,” New York (1941-05-21)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/hand-learned/5409/feed/ 0 5409 https://wist.info/washington-george/5402/ https://wist.info/washington-george/5402/#respond Mon, 29 Oct 2007 13:34:23 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5402 It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those intrusted with its administration to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power and proneness to abuse it which predominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position.

George Washington (1732–1799) American military leader, Founding Father, US President (1789–1797)
Essay (1796-09-18), “Farewell Address,” Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser, Philadelphia
    (Source)

The original draft of "The Address of Gen. Washington to the People of America on His Declining the Presidency of the United States" was by James Madison in June 1792. At the end of his second term, Washington, with the help of Alexander Hamilton, revised it for release and publication. ]]> https://wist.info/washington-george/5402/feed/ 0 5402 https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/5355/ https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/5355/#respond Mon, 08 Oct 2007 10:36:41 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5355 By the frame of the Government under which we live this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief, and have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance no Administration by any extreme of wickedness or folly can very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech (1861-03-04), Inaugural Address, Washington, D. C.
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/lincoln-abraham/5355/feed/ 0 5355 https://wist.info/stevenson-adlai-ewing/5128/ https://wist.info/stevenson-adlai-ewing/5128/#respond Sat, 21 Jul 2007 22:33:39 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5128 Sacrifice, patience, understanding, and implacable purpose may be our lot of years to come. Let’s face it. Let’s talk sense to the American people. Let’s tell them the truth, that there are no gains without pains, that there — that we are now on the eve of great decisions, not easy decisions, like resistance when you’re attacked, but a long, patient, costly struggle which alone can assure triumph over the great enemies of man — war, poverty, and tyranny — and the assaults upon human dignity which are the most grievous consequences of each.

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-07-26), Democratic National Convention, Chicago
    (Source)

(Source (Video)) ]]> https://wist.info/stevenson-adlai-ewing/5128/feed/ 0 5128 https://wist.info/bukowski-charles/5072/ https://wist.info/bukowski-charles/5072/#respond Wed, 16 May 2007 19:42:50 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5072 The difference between a Democracy and a Dictatorship is that in a Democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a Dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and Tales of Ordinary Madness (1972)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/bukowski-charles/5072/feed/ 0 5072 https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/4818/ https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/4818/#respond Wed, 12 May 2004 19:14:11 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=4818 ISABELLA:O, it is excellent
To have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Measure for Measure, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 135ff (2.2.135-137) (1604)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/4818/feed/ 0 4818 https://wist.info/mill-john-stuart/2824/ https://wist.info/mill-john-stuart/2824/#comments Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=2824 Some will object, that a comparison cannot fairly be made between the government of the male sex and the forms of unjust power which I have adduced in illustration of it, since these are arbitrary, and the effect of mere usurpation, while it on the contrary is natural. But was there ever any domination which did not appear natural to those who possessed it?

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist
The Subjection of Women, ch. 1 (1869)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/mill-john-stuart/2824/feed/ 2 2824 https://wist.info/paine-thomas/3064/ https://wist.info/paine-thomas/3064/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=3064 An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) American political philosopher and writer
“Dissertation on the First Principles of Government” (Jul 1795)

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