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.
Lord Byron

In a republic, that paradise of debility, the politician is a petty tyrant who obeys the laws.
Emile M. Cioran

In every tyrant's heart there springs in the end this poison, that he cannot trust a friend.
Aeschylus

In order to have the stuff of a tyrant, a certain mental derangement is necessary.
Emile M. Cioran

It was known in the mid 90s already that Saddam Hussein was a dangerous tyrant that he had already launched aggressions against Iran, he had invaded Kuwait.
Douglas Feith

Love is a tyrant sparing none.
Pierre Corneille

More harm was done in the 20th century by faceless bureaucrats than tyrant dictators.
Dennis Prager

My dad was a tyrant. He used to physically beat the crap out of us.
Dennis Wilson

My father was very intense, passionate and over-the-top. He was my hero and my tyrant.
June Jordan

Old age is a tyrant, who forbids, under pain of death, the pleasures of youth.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation understand that to choose one's government is not necessarily to secure freedom.
Friedrich August von Hayek

Public opinion, a vulgar, impertinent, anonymous tyrant who deliberately makes life unpleasant for anyone who is not content to the average person.
William Ralph Inge

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.
Thomas Jefferson

Saddam Hussein was a brutal tyrant. I am glad he is now on trial for crimes against humanity. But, opposition to a dictator is not the measure I use when deciding whether to send our men and women in uniform off to war and possible death.
Peter DeFazio

The fanatic is incorruptible: if he kills for an idea, he can just as well get himself killed for one; in either case, tyrant or martyr, he is a monster.
Emile M. Cioran

The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.
Mohandas Gandhi

The right of a nation to kill a tyrant in case of necessity can no more be doubted than to hang a robber, or kill a flea.
John Adams

The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice.
Voltaire

The tyrant always talks as if he's preserving the best interests of his people when he actually acts to undermine them.
Ramman Kenoun

The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins.
Soren Kierkegaard