Quotes about dictator (624 quotes, page 7)

“Dictators may torture or kill us, but they shall not succeed in demoralizing the soul of our movement, in bringing it to a state where for the sake of saving its life it is willing to renounce its ideal. Our cause will conquer in spite of everything, for in economic life as well as in politics the highest ability to accomplish and to advance things belongs to communities and organizations of free men working in free cooperation. These free communities will far outstrip every collective body, every organization that is built on compulsion and that can be maintained only by brute force; and ultimately the communities based on oppression will perish.”

Karl Kautsky (1854–1938) Czech-Austrian philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theoretician

Chap. V, The Period of Dictatorship
"Hitlerism and Social Democracy" (1934) https://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1934/hitler/index.htm

Communication , Soul , Life , Men

“Against the new leviathan, whether in the guise of universal suffrage, democracy, or of an equally fraudulent triumphant proletariat, [Kierkegaard] pitted the individual human soul made in the image of a God who was concerned about the fate of every living creature. In contrast with the notion of salvation through power, he held out the hope of salvation through suffering. The Cross against the ballot box or the clenched fist; the solitary pilgrim against the slogan-shouting mob; the crucified Christ against the demagogue-dictators promising a kingdom of heaven on earth, whether achieved through endlessly expanding wealth and material well-being, or through the ever greater concentration of power and its ever more ruthless exercise.”

Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–1990) English journalist, author, media personality, and satirist

The Oddest Prophet – Søren Kierkegaard by Malcolm Muggeridge

Democracy , Soul , God , Fate

“We need only look at the much lower level of anti-Americanism in Vietnam to realize that suffering incurred in wars does not necessarily dictate decades of animosity and fear between peoples. It’s what propaganda does with history — for contemporary political ends — that counts.”

Brian Reynolds Myers (1963) American professor of international studies

"On the Recent Spate of 'Why North Korea Hates America' Articles" http://sthelepress.com/index.php/2017/05/27/1419/ (27 May 2017), Sthele Press
2010s

History , War , Suffering , People

“Liberalism is not being killed by dictators. Liberalism is committing suicide—out of despair and a bad conscience. What liberalism needs is a revival, in the evangelical sense of the word. It needs to admit its sins, as the basis of renewing its life.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Dorothy Thompson’s Political Guide: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
Source: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
pp. 73-74

Despair , Suicide , Bad luck , Sense

“Every gentleman here is born a petty tyrant. Practised in acts of despotism and cruelty, we become callous to the dictates of humanity and all the finer feelings of the soul. Taught to regard a part of our own Species in the most abject and contemptible Degree below us, we lose that Idea of the dignity of Man which the Hand of Nature had implanted in us, for great and useful purposes. Habituated from our Infancy to trample upon the Rights of Human Nature, every generous, every liberal Sentiment, if not extinguished, is enfeebled in our Minds; and in such an infernal school are to be educated our future legislators and rulers. The laws of impartial Providence may even by such means as these avenge upon our posterity the injury done to a set of wretches whom our injustice hath debased to a level with the brute creation. These remarks were extorted by a kind of irresistible, perhaps an enthusiastic impulse; and the author of them, conscious of his own good intentions, cares not whom they please or offend.”

George Mason (1725–1792) American delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention

Source: Virginia Charters (1773)

School , Soul , Law , Future

“American capitalism is arrogant, self-confident, merciless and convinced of its capacity to dictate the destinies of the world.”

Michael Foot (1913–2010) British politician

Source: Article in The Daily Herald (14 December 1945), quoted in Mervyn Jones, Michael Foot (1994), p. 141

World , Self-confidence , Confidence

“The real DJ does not follow fashion, he dictates it.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Il vero DJ non segue la moda, la detta.
Source: prevale.net

Fashion

“There’s never been an act done since the beginning, from a kid stealing candy to a dictator committing genocide, that the person doing it didn’t think he was fully justified. That’s a mental trick called rationalizing, and it’s done the human race more harm than anything else you can name.”

Leigh Brackett book The Long Tomorrow

Source: The Long Tomorrow (1955), Chapter 14

Personality , Thinking

“If when I die, I am still a dictator, I will certainly go down into the oblivion of all dictators. If, on the other hand, I succeed in establishing a truly stable foundation for a democratic government, I will live forever in every home in China.”

Chiang Kai-shek (1887–1975) Chinese politician and military leader

Taiwan's Modernization: Americanization and Modernizing Confucian Manifestations, Wei-Bin Zhang, 2003, World Scientific, 2003, 177, 9814486132, 23 May 2021 https://books.google.com/books?id=J3BpDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA177,

Home

“Sir, there were other days, when England was the hope of freedom. Wherever in the world a high aspiration was entertained, or a noble blow was struck, it was to England that the eyes of the oppressed were always turned—to this favourite, this darling home of so much privilege and so much happiness, where the people that had built up a noble edifice for themselves would, it was well known, be ready to do what in them lay to secure the benefit of the same inestimable boon for others. You talk to me of the established tradition and policy in regard to Turkey. I appeal to an established tradition, older, wider, nobler far—a tradition not which disregards British interests, but which teaches you to seek the promotion of those interests in obeying the dictates of honour and of justice.”

William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) British Liberal politician and prime minister of the United Kingdom

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1877/may/07/postponement-of-orders-of-the-day#column_437 in the House of Commons (7 May 1877)
1870s

Home , Justice , Freedom , Happiness

“Revenge is the philosophy of dictators and mob bosses... used to keep others in line with threats of economic ruin, violence, or worse.”

David Cay Johnston (1948) Investigative journalist and author

It's Even Worse Than You Think (2018)

Revenge

“Freedom of conscience and freedom of choice are not the same; where conscience dictates, choice decides. Where freedom of conscience is at stake, the relevant right is to perform a duty, not to make a choice. This was the issue for Madison and Jefferson. Religious liberty addressed the problem of encumbered selves, claimed by duties they cannot renounce, even in the face of civil obligations that may conflict.”

Michael J. Sandel (1953) American political philosopher

Chap. 3. Religious Liberty and Freedom of Speech
Democracy's Discontent (1996)

Freedom , Problem

“Our world today is in the grip of anti-capitalism. State bureaucracies ruling over anti-market policies have grown into ideological and political elites who arrogantly presume to know and dictate how we should all live and work.”

Richard Ebeling (1950) American economist

“Is the ‘Spectre of Communism’ Still Haunting the World?” https://fee.org/resources/is-the-spectre-of-communism-still-haunting-the-world/, speech entitled “Evenings at FEE” in March 2006. Posted in Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), (December 19, 2008)

World

“With Puritanism as the constant check upon American life, neither truth nor sincerity is possible. Nothing but gloom and mediocrity to dictate human conduct, curtail natural expression, and stifle our best impulses.”

Emma Goldman book Anarchism and Other Essays

Anarchism and Other Essays (1910), The Hypocrisy of Puritanism

Truth , Sincerity , Nature , Life

“We are taught to hate dictators here on Earth, but it will be a different case in Heaven.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Hate

“We must mobilize all forces and suspend all political parties and social organizations. I do not want to be a dictator, but if need be we can resort to that.”

Ayaz Mutallibov (1938–2022) Soviet politician, then president of Azerbaijan

Source: "Azerbaijani Leader, Restored To Power, Imposes Emergency Rule" in The Washington Post https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:epcCRJyvH3AJ:https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/05/15/azerbaijani-leader-restored-to-power-imposes-emergency-rule/c4a5d291-a743-4227-90db-54e0f9739b80/+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us (15 May 1992)

“The ultimate expression of sovereignty resides, to a large degree, in the power and the capacity to dictate who may live and who must die.”

Achille Mbembe (1957) Cameroonian political scientist

Source: "Necropolitics," as translated by Libby Meintjes, Public Culture, Volume 15, Number 1, Winter 2003, pp. 11-40

“They say I'm a dictator, so be it!”

Rodrigo Duterte (1945) Filipino politician and the 16th President of the Philippines

Original: (tl) Sabi nila diktador ako...so be it!
Source: In an interview with GMA News' State of the Nation with Jessica Soho http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/493566/news/nation/duterte-sabi-nila-diktador-ako-so-be-it (26 May 2015)

“Which would you rather be, a dumb person or a dictator? Perhaps a dictator would be better. I don't want to be a dumb person.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

"Trump says he'd rather be 'a dictator' than 'a dumb person' after bragging about the cognitive test he took in 2018" https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-rather-be-a-dictator-than-a-dumb-person-video-2022-4?r=US&IR=T, Business Insider, 22 April 2022
2022, April 2022

Personality

“We don’t need ‘masters’ that dictate to other countries, let alone politicizing and turning the human rights issue into a tool, practicing double standards and interference in the internal affairs of other countries under the pretext of human rights.”

Xi Jinping (1953) General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and paramount leader of China

"Xi Jinping Defends China's Human Rights Record Amid Accusations Over Uyghur Camps" https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/china/xi-jinping-defends-chinas-human-rights-record-amid-accusations-over-uyghur-camps-articleshow.html in Republic World (25 May 2002)
2020s

Country