I cannot help thinking that it would be well to discard, as quickly as possible, the old troublesome double-worded name of our science.
Preface To The Second Edition, p. 8.
The Theory of Political Economy (1871)
“… libertas [liberty], like regnum [kingship] or dominatio [despotism], is a convenient term of political fraud.”
—
Ronald Syme
,
book
The Roman Revolution
The Roman Revolution ([1939] 2002), ch. 11.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Do you have more details about the quote "… libertas [liberty], like regnum [kingship] or dominatio [despotism], is a convenient term of political fraud." by Ronald Syme?
Ronald Syme 7
New Zealand-born historian and classicist 1903–1989Related quotes
“The government in a revolution is the despotism of liberty against tyranny.”
Maximilien Robespierre
(1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician
Original: (fr) Le gouvernement de la révolution est le despotisme de la liberté contre la tyrannie.
Source: Speech to the National Convention http://www.royet.org/nea1789-1794/archives/discours/robespierre_principes_morale_politique_05_02_94.htm (5 February 1794)
“The revolutionary government is the despotism of liberty against tyranny.”
Act I.
Dantons Tod (Danton's Death) (1835)
“We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.”
Thomas Jefferson
(1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
Letter to Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette (2 April 1790)
1790s
“Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot.”
Source: Democracy in America, Volume I (1835), Chapter XV-IXX, Chapter XVII.
Context: Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie is not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what can be done with a people who are their own masters if they are not submissive to the Deity?
“How did we recover our liberty? By fraud and violence.”
Benjamin Tillman
(1847–1918) American politician
We tried to overcome the thirty thousand majority by honest methods, which was a mathematical impossibility. After we had borne these indignities for eight years life became worthless under such conditions.
As quoted in "The Question of Race in the South Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1895" (July 1952), by George B. Tindall. The Journal of Negro History, 37 (3): 277–303. JSTOR 2715494., p. 94.
“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.”
Thomas Jefferson
(1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
Letter to his Italian friend, Philip Mazzei (1796)
1790s
Rousas John Rushdoony
(1916–2001) American theologian
Writings, The Mediator: Christ or the Church? The Witness of Jesus Christ (n. d.)
Carl Sagan
(1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator
Source: Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millenium (1997), Chapter 14, "The Common Enemy"
Context: Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders in the short term, but it is suicidal for nations in the long term. One of the criteria for national leadership should therefore be a talent for understanding, encouraging, and making constructive use of vigorous criticism.
George Mason
(1725–1792) American delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention
Article 12
Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)