Dictatorship Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old dictatorship quotes, dictatorship sayings, and dictatorship proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty. Plato
The revolution is a dictatorship of the exploited against the exploiters. Fidel Castro
Dictators can fix up their entire families in good jobs, in or around government, and often do. In democracies, such a practice is frowned upon. Privileged access to the corridors of power through family connections and a kind of old boys' network, is also deemed an abuse of power, and so it is. Jimmy Reid
It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own. Herbert Hoover
The true essence of a dictatorship is in fact not its regularity but its unpredictability and caprice; those who live under it must never be able to relax, must never be quite sure if they have followed the rules correctly or not. Christopher Hitchens
The hearts of the people are good, but it's the hearts of the dictators that are small. Anthony T. Hincks
Open confession of dictatorship is far less dangerous than sham democracy. One can defend oneself against the former; the latter is like a creeper attached to the body of a drowning man. Wilhelm Reich
Dictators long ago found that it is easier to unite people in common hatred than in common love. Dagobert D. Runes
In every society some men are born to rule, and some to advise. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Any excuse will serve a tyrant. Aesop
All dictators are hypnotized and they all crawl out of the same ditch. Stephen Kyeyune
Maintain democracy or go to dictatorship: that is what is at stake in these elections. Mario Vargas Llosa
The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy; the best weapon of a democracy is openness. Edward Teller
The only way out of international dictatorship is to place international law above governments, which means that there must be a parliament for making it, and that parliament must be constituted by means of worldwide elections in which all nations will take part. Albert Camus
Ours is a people's democratic dictatorship, led by the working class and based on the worker-peasant alliance. Mao Zedong
Dictators never invent their own opportunities. Buckminster Fuller
When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right. Victor Hugo
A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it. George W. Bush
Dictatorships start wars because they need external enemies to exert internal control over their own people. Richard Perle
Dictators must have enemies. They must have internal enemies to justify their secret police and external enemies to justify their military forces. Richard Perle
Dictators are rulers who always look good until the last ten minutes. Jan Masaryk
They have been talking about a dictatorship and they were right because there's a dictatorship and there's a government that has been fighting that dictatorship, the dictatorship of the media. Rafael Correa
Most of the nations around the world are led by tyrants and dictators and thugs who are leading their countries for one reason. Rush Limbaugh
Every one of the world's dictatorships can and does claim to be acting in the name of the people. Harold H. Greene
A dictatorship is a country where they have taken the politics out of the politics. Samuel Himmel
Dictatorship is like a giant beech-tree very magnificent to look at in its prime, but nothing grows underneath it. Stanley Baldwin
Every dictatorship has ultimately strangled in the web of repression it wove for its people, making mistakes that could not be corrected because criticism was prohibited. John F. Kennedy
The essence of modern dictatorship is the combination of one-dimensional, flat thinking with power and terror. Theodor Haecker
Military dictatorship is born from the power of the gun, and so it undermines the concept of the rule of law and gives birth to a culture of might, a culture of weapons, violence and intolerance. Benazir Bhutto
Every despot must have one disloyal subject to keep him sane. George Bernard Shaw
All dictators are alike: they have control of everything - except their feelings. Evan Esar
Under dictatorship, the people in prison are always superior to the people who put them there. Evan Esar
The country that has only one man who can save it, is not worth saving. Evan Esar
In a democracy, you believe it or not; in a dictatorship, you believe it or else. Evan Esar
Under a dictatorship the people have to follow their leader when they should be chasing him instead. Evan Esar
A smart dictator will look ahead and work out that he is better off liberalizing now than risk being, jailed, or killed later. Bruce Bueno de Mesquita
Once most revolutionaries come to power, their inclination if they can get away with it is to be petty dictators. Bruce Bueno de Mesquita
A prudent dictator nips rebellion in the bud. Bruce Bueno de Mesquita
Being a dictator can be a terrific job, but iit also can be terribly stressful, especially if money is in short supply. Bruce Bueno de Mesquita
Just as democrats have no need of being civic visionaries, dictators likewise aren't bound to make life miserable. Bruce Bueno de Mesquita
Economic progress is supposed to make dictatorship less necessary. Stein Ringen
All modern states, democratic or dictatorial, even the vilest communist and fascist ones, have prided themselves on delivering social protection to their populations. Stein Ringen
I believe in benevolent dictatorships, provided I am the dictator. Richard Branson
Television made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable. Shimon Peres
One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. George Orwell
Ignorance is an evil weed, which dictators may cultivate among their dupes, but which no democracy can afford among its citizens. William Beveridge
Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear. Alan Coren
The liberty of the individual is a necessary postulate of human progress. Ernest Renan
Even tyrants and dictators make a point of being fond of children. But the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of a culture. Abraham Joshua Heschel