Tyrant Quotes
More Tyrant Quotes
Alike were they free from Fear, that reigns with the tyrant, and envy, the vice of republics. Neither locks had they to their doors, nor bars to their windows; But their dwellings were open as day and the hearts of their owners; There the richest was poor, and the poorest lived in abundance.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow— Part I, section 1
Any excuse will serve a tyrant.
aesop— The Wolf and the Lamb
Notwithstanding my experiments with electricity the thunderbolt continues to fall under our noses and beards; and as for the tyrant, there are a million of us still engaged at snatching away his sceptre.
— Benjamin Franklin, comment on Tubgot's inscription in a letter to Felix Nogaret, who translated the lines into French.
Skiddaw shews its vast base, and bounding all that part of the vale, rises gently to a height that sinks the neighboring hills; opens a pleasing front, smooth and verdant, smiling over the country like a gentle generous lord, while the fells of Borrowdale frown on it like a hardened tyrant.
— Thomas Pennant A Tour in Scotland, and Voyage to the Hebrides (London: Benjamin White, [1774-6] 1790) p. 46
The East Wind, an interloper in the dominions of Westerly weather, is an impassive-faced tyrant with a sharp poniard held behind his back for a treacherous stab.
joseph conrad— The Mirror of the Sea, (1906), ch. 28.
How strangely will the Tools of a tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words!
Samuel Adams— Letter to John Pitts (21 January 1776)
E? loquence quipersuade par douceur, non par empire, en tyran, non en roi. Eloquence should persuade gently, not by force or like a tyrant or king.
Blaise Pascal— c.1654-1662 Pense es, pt.1, no.15.
Margaret Thatcher is a brilliant tyrant surrounded by mediocrities.
Stockton— 1986 In Newsweek,12 Oct.
Let us render the tyrant no aid; let us not hold the light by which he can trace the footprints of our flying brother.
frederick douglass— Ch. 11 (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845))
Only that he may conformTo tyrant custom.
guillaume de salluste du bartas— Second Week, Third Day, Part ii. Compare: "The tyrant custom", William Shakespeare, Othello, act i. sc. 3, line 230.
Spineless politics do not change the mind of a tyrant.
friedrich kellner— May 29, 1940; Vol. 1, p. 73
The tyrant puts down his own rebellion, everywhere.
james richardson— #77 (Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten Second Essays (2001))
I will be harsh and stern against the aggressor, but I will be a pillar of strength for the weak.I will not calm down until I will put one cheek of a tyrant on the ground and the other under my feet, and for the poor and weak, I will put my cheek on the ground.
umar— As quoted in Al Farooq, Umar (1944) by Muhammad Husayn Haykal, Ch. 5, p. 124
Love is the tyrant of the heart; it darkens Reason, confounds discretion; deaf to Counsel It runs a headlong course to desperate madness.
— Act III, sc. iii.
Of all wild beasts preserve me from a tyrant; and of all tame, a flatterer.
Ben Jonson— Sejanus (1603), Act I.
"I dare the truth, Elaida," Egwene said quietly. "you are a coward and a tyrant. I'd name you Darkfriend as well, but I suspect that the Dark One would perhaps be embarrassed to associate with you."
robert jordan— Egwene al'Vere, Rebel Amyrlin Seat, captive of the White Tower
A truer image of the world, I think, is obtained by picturing things as entering into the stream of time from an eternal world outside, than from a view which regards time as the devouring tyrant of all that is.
bertrand russell— Ch. 1: Mysticism and Logic.
“Not in the least. I have but one ambition.” “And that is :;?” “To be the serviceable slave of my country.” “A master is more serviceable than a slave,” said the old man. “No; no; I deny it. I can admit much from you, but I cannot admit that. The politician who becomes the master of his country sinks from the statesman to the tyrant.”
Anthony Trollope— Ch. 58 (Phineas Redux (1874))
And from that luckless hour my tyrant fair Has led and turned me by a single hair.
— Robert Bland, Anthology (Ed. 1813), p. 20.
The tyrant custom, most grave senators, Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war My thrice-driven bed of down.
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, Othello (c. 1603), Act I, scene 3, line 230.
The statute is like a tyrant; where he comes he makes all void; but the common law is like a nursing father, makes only void that part where the fault is, and preserves the rest.
— Lord Hobart, C.J., quoted by Twisden, C.J., in Maleverer v. Redshaw (1670), 1 Mod. Rep. 36 ; and by Wilmot, L.C.J., in Collins v. Blantern (1767), 2 Wils. 351.
Now you fear punishment and beg for your lives, so I will let you free, if not for any other reason so that you can see the difference between a Greek king and a barbarian tyrant, so do not expect to suffer any harm from me. A king does not kill messengers.
— As quoted in the Historia Alexandri Magni of Pseudo-Kallisthenes, 1.37.9-13
Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people , and therefore deprive them of their arms.
— Book V, 1311.a11
Do you question me, as an honest man should do, for my simple true judgment; or would you have me speak after my custom, as being a professed tyrant to their sex?
— Benedick, scene i
Only a humorless tyrant could want a perpetual chanting of praises that, one has no choice but to assume, would be the innate virtues and splendors furnished him by his creator, infinite regression, drowned in praise!
christopher hitchens— Letter to a Young Contrarian (2001).
Love is the tyrant of the heart; it darkens reason, confounds discretion. Deaf to counsel, it runs a headlong course to desperate madness.
John Ford— The Lover's Melancholy (licensed 24 November 1628; printed 1629), Act III, scene 3, line 105.
