Quotes About Authoritarianism

Today, we seem to be striving towards injustice, applauding it as though it's a worthy dream, made sacred by the caste system.

'The End of America' details the 10 steps that would-be dictators always take in seeking to close an open society; it argued that the Bush administration had been advancing each one.

Italy in the 1920s, Germany in the '30s, East Germany in the '50s, Czechoslovakia in the '60s, the Latin American dictatorships in the '70s, China in the '80s and '90s - all dictatorships and would-be dictators target newspapers and journalists.

This resemblance became clear in the Bush the father's visits to the region. He wound up being impressed by the royal and military regimes and envied them for staying decades in their positions and embezzling the nation's money with no supervision.

All societies wrestle with the scourge of prejudice, but validating that prejudice in statute makes a virtue of oppression.

The imprisoning of a writer is the same as the burning of a book.

I came from two harsh dictatorships, Nazi and Stalinist. I never thought of becoming a writer as such, yet in a lucid moment, I recognised what I had to do.

That is my major concern: writers who are in prison for writing.

Writers in repressive societies are considered dangerous. That's why so many of them are in jail.

The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic.

The objection to Puritans is not that they try to make us think as they do, but that they try to make us do as they think.

A totalitarian state is no different whether you call it Nazi, Fascist, Communist or Franco's Spain.

Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.

The point is that both Hitler and Stalin held out promises of stability in order to hide their intention of creating a state of permanent instability.

Overtuigde communisten - de enige die vandaag enig belang heeft - zijn even belachelijk en evenzeer bedreigend voor het regime in Rusland als bijvoorbeeld de overtuigde nazi's van de Röhmfactie waren voor de nazi's.

The truth is that the price of totalitarian rule was so high that in neither Germany nor Russia has it yet been paid in full.

Beware of fascist feminism.

Tough decisions are never popular to make and even less popular to force upon the U.N.

There are certain people within the new government who have a slightly disturbing tendency toward authoritarianism, but there are so many checks and balances that in that way their noises are just noises.

We begin the path toward defeating Mexico's real adversary, who represents authoritarianism and the worst antidemocratic practice, who represents a return to corruption as a system and impunity as conviction. That adversary is Pena Nieto and his party.

China and the U.S. are two societies with very different attitudes towards opinion and criticism. In China, I am constantly under surveillance. Even my slightest, most innocuous move can - and often is - censored by Chinese authorities.

We have traded a dictator for a chaos that has left America less secure.

The fabric of society is woven together by the needle of suppression and denial.

What kind of times are they, when A talk about trees is almost a crime Because it implies silence about so many horrors?