The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.[Le bien-être du peuple en particulier a toujours été l’alibi des tyrans, et il offre de plus l’avantage de donner bonne conscience aux domestiques de la tyrannie.]
Tyranny or slavery, born of selfishness, are the two educational methods of parents; all gradations of tyranny or slavery.[Das sind, aus Eigennutz geboren, die zwei Erziehungsmittel der Eltern: Tyrannei und Sklaverei in allen Abstufungen.]
There is no week nor day nor hour when tyranny may not enter upon this country, if the people lose their supreme confidence in themselves, – and lose their roughness and spirit of defiance.
If we must have a tyrant – let him at least be a gentleman who has been bred to the business, and let us fall by the axe and not by the butcher’s cleaver.
Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins.
