Herman Melville Quotes

Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress?

Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch – this is the Capitol’s way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy. How little chance we would stand of surviving another rebellion. Whatever words they use, the real message is clear. “Look how we take your children and sacrifice them and there’s nothing you can do. If you lift a finger, we will destroy every last one of you. Just as we did in District Thirteen

Authority is never without hate.

Let tyrants shake their iron rod.

The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.

Power acquired by violence is only a usurpation, and lasts only as long as the force of him who commands prevails over that of those who obey.

Force, no matter how concealed, begets resistance.

The silence of peoples is something kings should study.

The tyranny of some is possible only through the cowardice of others.

The establishment, whatever rewards it gives us, will also, if necessary to maintain it's control, kill us

Let people hate you so long as they fear you.

Violence can always destroy power; out of the barrel of a gun grows the most effective command, resulting in the most instant and perfect obedience. What never can grow out of it is power.

All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what they do not want to do.

Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.

The power that is supported by force alone will have cause often to tremble.

People demand freedom only when they have no power.

Fear is the foundation of most governments.

Cruelty is a tyrant that's always attended with fear.

Sometimes fear is used as a way to control.

The thing about Republicans is that they don't care so much about respect, but they love fear, at least in others.

Wherever there is a man who exercises authority, there is a man who resists authority!

Truth is always the enemy of power. And power the enemy of truth.

Power abdicates only under stress of counter-power.

No one can go on being a rebel too long without becoming an autocrat.

You only have power over people so long as you don’t take everything away from them. But when you’ve robbed a man of everything he’s no longer in your power — he’s free again.