“Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.”

Variation: Disobedience to tyranny is obedience to God.
This statement has often been attributed to Jefferson and sometimes to English theologian William Tyndale, or Susan B. Anthony, who used it, but cited it as an "old revolutionary maxim" — it was widely used as an abolitionist and feminist slogan in the 19th century. Benjamin Franklin proposed in August 1776 a very similar quote (Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God) as the motto on the Great Seal of the United States http://www.greatseal.com/committees/firstcomm/reverse.html. The earliest definite citations of a source yet found in research for Wikiquote indicates that the primary formulation was declared by Massachusetts Governor Simon Bradstreet after the overthrow of Dominion of New England Governor Edmund Andros in relation to the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688, as quoted in Official Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the State Convention: assembled May 4th, 1853 (1853) by the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, p. 502. It is also quoted as a maxim that arose after the overthrow of Andros in A Book of New England Legends and Folk Lore (1883) by Samuel Adams Drake. p. 426
Misattributed

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Thomas Jefferson 456
3rd President of the United States of America 1743–1826

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“Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.”

John Knox (1514–1572) Scottish clergyman, writer and historian

Misattributed

William Tyndale photo

“Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.”

William Tyndale (1494–1536) Bible translator and agitator from England

This was used as an abolitionist and feminist slogan in the 19th century and has sometimes been attributed to Tyndale, but more frequently to Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, who has been cited as having wanted it to be the motto of the United States, as well as to Susan B. Anthony, who cited it as an "old Revolutionary maxim". The earliest definite citations of a source yet found in research for Wikiquote indicates that it was declared by Massachusetts Governor Simon Bradstreet after the overthrow of Dominion of New England Governor Edmund Andros in relation to the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688, as quoted in Official Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the State Convention: assembled May 4th, 1853 (1853) by the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, p. 502. It is also quoted as a maxim that arose after the overthrow of Andros in A Book of New England Legends and Folk Lore (1883) by Samuel Adams Drake. p. 426
Misattributed

Susan B. Anthony photo

“Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.”

Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) American women's rights activist

This statement was widely used as an abolitionist and feminist slogan in the 19th century and has sometimes been attributed to Anthony, who famously used it, but cited it as an "old revolutionary maxim"; it has also frequently been attributed to Thomas Jefferson, and to Benjamin Franklin, who has been cited as having proposed it as the motto of the United States, as well as to English theologian William Tyndale. The earliest definite citations of a source yet found in research for Wikiquote indicates that it was declared by Massachusetts Governor Simon Bradstreet after the overthrow of Dominion of New England Governor Edmund Andros in relation to the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688, as quoted in Official Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the State Convention: assembled May 4th, 1853 (1853) by the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, p. 502. It is also quoted as a maxim that arose after the overthrow of Andros in A Book of New England Legends and Folk Lore (1883) by Samuel Adams Drake. p. 426
Misattributed
Variant: Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.

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“Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.”

James Eastland (1904–1986) American politician

Other Eastland quote against Brown
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James Eastland photo

“Obedience is the giving up of the resistance; obstinacy the setting up of fresh resistances.”

Wilhelm Stekel (1868–1940) Austrian physician and psychologist

Sadism and Masochism : The Psychology of Hatred and Cruelty, Vol. 1 (1939), p. 46
Context: An intense, unyielding stubbornness hides beneath an apparent obedience (the patient brings a vast number of dreams; his associations become endless; he produces an inexhaustible number of recollections, which seem to him very important but are actually of little moment; or he goes off upon some byroad suggested by the analyst and leads the latter into a blind alley).
The child manifests the same reactions of defiance and obedience. The child, too, can hide his stubbornness behind an excessive docility (the parent's command: You must be industrious. Industry may become a mania so that the child neither goes out nor has time to sleep). Obedience is the giving up of the resistance; obstinacy the setting up of fresh resistances. This resistance is externally active. We have in recent years had sufficient opportunity to observe the law of resistance (the passive resistance). Activity and defiance show great differences. Defiance is the reaction against activity (aggression) of the environment. It may then manifest itself actively or passively and stands in the service of the defensive tendency of the ego. Every resistance reveals the ego (one's own) in conflict with another.

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Benjamin Franklin photo

“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …

Benjamin Franklin proposed this as the motto on the Great Seal of the United States http://www.greatseal.com/committees/firstcomm/reverse.html. It is often falsely attributed to Thomas Jefferson because he endorsed the motto. It may have been inspired by a similar quote made by Simon Bradstreet after the 1688 overthrow of Edmund Andros. Bradstreet's quote is found in two sources: Official Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the State Convention: assembled May 4th, 1853 (1853) by the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, p. 502 and A Book of New England Legends and Folk Lore (1883) by Samuel Adams Drake. p. 426.
Decade unclear

Michael Moorcock photo

“For this was the other thing that Elric knew; that to compromise with Tyranny is always to be destroyed by it. The sanest and most logical choice lay always in resistance.”

Michael Moorcock (1939) English writer, editor, critic

Book 2, Chapter 5 “Detecting Certain Hints of the Higher Worlds” (p. 259)
The Elric Cycle, The Revenge of the Rose (1991)

Anthony de Mello photo

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