“Clever tyrants are never punished.”

—  Voltaire, Mérope

Les habiles tyrans ne sont jamais punis.
Mérope, act V, scene V (1743)
Citas

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Clever tyrants are never punished." by Voltaire?
Voltaire photo
Voltaire167
French writer, historian, and philosopher 1694–1778

Related quotes

Agatha Christie photo

“Evil never goes unpunished, Monsieur. But the punishment is sometimes secret.”

Agatha Christie book Peril at End House

Source: Peril at End House

Ali Gomaa photo

“Islam never punishes just the woman, but always both the woman and the man”

Ali Gomaa (1951) Egyptian imam

Context: Interviewer: What about the way women are punished?
Ali Gum'a: Polygamy is one thing, and the punishment is another. Islam never punishes just the woman, but always both the woman and the man.... There is no bias against women. Adultery is a sin for both men and women.

Maximilien Robespierre photo

“It is a gross contradiction to suppose that the constitution might preside over this new order of things; that would be to assume it had itself survived. What are the laws that replace it? Those of nature, the one which is the foundation of society itself: the salvation of the people. The right to punish the tyrant and the right to dethrone him are the same thing; both include the same forms. The tyrant’s trial is the insurrection; the verdict, the collapse of his power; the sentence, whatever the liberty of the people requires.”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

Speech on the Trial of Louis XVI (Dec. 3, 1792) <br class="br">Source: https://ihrf.univ-paris1.fr/enseignement/outils-et-materiaux-pedagogiques/textes-et-sources-sur-la-revolution-francaise/proces-du-roi-discours-de-robespierre/ Speech on the Trial of Louis XVI (Dec. 3, 1792)<br><br>en.wikiquote.org - Maximilien Robespierre / Quotes / Speech on the Trial of Louis XVI (Dec. 3, 1792) https://ihrf.univ-paris1.fr/enseignement/outils-et-materiaux-pedagogiques/textes-et-sources-sur-la-revolution-francaise/proces-du-roi-discours-de-robespierre/

Horace Mann photo

“The object of punishment is, prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.”

Horace Mann (1796–1859) American politician

Lecture 7
Lectures on Education (1855)

Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“He who is punished is never he who performed the deed. He is always the scapegoat.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

252
Daybreak — Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality (1881)

Maimónides photo

“Eliphas never abandoned his belief that the fate of man is the result of justice, that we do not know all our shortcomings for which we are punished, nor the way how we incur the punishment through them.”

Maimónides book The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.23

“So now, for mercy and honor shown to my people, my lord is barbarous; a tyrant, because he punished his would-be murderers, the right of their meanest citizen; a mere vaunting soldier, though wherever he went he brought Greece with him, the Greece he honored, of which these liars are the unworthy heirs.”

Mary Renault book The Persian Boy

Source: The Persian Boy (1972), p. 269

Nick Cave photo

“Punishment? Reward! Punishment? Reward!”

Nick Cave (1957) Australian musician

Song lyrics, Mutiny (1993), Mutiny in Heaven

Lysander Spooner photo

“[I]f there be no such principle as justice, there can be no such acts as crimes; and all the professions of governments, so called, that they exist, either in whole or in part, for the punishment or prevention of crimes, are professions that they exist for the punishment or prevention of what never existed, nor ever can exist.”

Lysander Spooner (1808–1887) Anarchist, Entrepreneur, Abolitionist

Section V, p. 13
Natural Law; or The Science of Justice (1882), Chapter II. The Science of Justice (Continued)

Muhammad photo

“Abu Sa'id al-Khudri reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "The Garden (heaven) and the Fire argued and the Fire said, 'I have the tyrants and the arrogant.' The Garden said, 'I have the weak and poor people.' Allah judged between them, 'You, the Garden, are My mercy. By you I show mercy to whomever I wish. You, the Fire, are My punishment by whom I punish whomever I will. It is My duty to fill both of you."”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Riyadh-as-Saliheen by Imam Al-Nawawi, volume 4, hadith number 615
Sunni Hadith

Related topics