„The fundamental political question is why do people obey a government. The answer is that they tend to enslave themselves, to let themselves be governed by tyrants. Freedom from servitude comes not from violent action, but from the refusal to serve. Tyrants fall when the people withdraw their support.“

„The people of a nation are enslaved when, together, they are helpless to institute effective change, when the people serve the government more than the government serves them.“

—  Gerry Spence American lawyer 1929

Zdroj: Give Me Liberty! (1998), Ch. 1 : We, the People, the New American Slaves, p. 8

„The way people in democracies think of the government as something different from themselves is a real handicap. And, of course, sometimes the government confirms their opinion.“

—  Lewis Mumford American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic 1895 - 1990

As quoted in Philosophers of the Earth : Conversations with Ecologists (1972) by Anne Chisholm

„Do you know what happens with people who cannot govern themselves? That's right. Others come in to govern for them“

—  Cormac McCarthy, kniha Blood Meridian

Zdroj: Blood Meridian (1985), Chapter III

„It is not the intention of Islam to force its beliefs on people, but Islam is not merely ‘belief’. As we have pointed out, Islam is a declaration of the freedom of man from servitude to other men. Thus it strives from the beginning to abolish all those systems and governments which are based on the rule of man over men and the servitude of one human being to another. When Islam releases people from this political pressure and presents to them its spiritual message, appealing to their reason, it gives them complete freedom to accept or not to accept its beliefs.“

—  Sayyid Qutb Egyptian author, educator, Islamic theorist, poet, and politician 1906 - 1966

Zdroj: Ma'alim fi'l-Tariq (Signposts on the Road, or Milestones) (1964), Ch. 4, p. 70.

„They [the government] cannot stop people from communicating freely, to get information and to express themselves. When they do that, this nation is not a right place to live. They sacrifice generations of people’s opportunities. This is a crime.“

—  Ai Weiwei Chinese concept artist 1957

2010-

„The needs that are met by tyrants are as real as those to which freedom answers; sometimes they are more urgent. Tyrants promise security - and release from the tedium of everyday existence. To be sure, this is only a confused fantasy. The drab truth of tyranny is a life spent in waiting. But the perennial romance of tyranny comes from its promising its subjects a life more interesting than any they can contrive for themselves.“

—  John Gray, kniha Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals

The Unsaved: The Grand Inquisitor and Flying Fish (p. 124)
Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals (2002)

„The fundamental sense of freedom is freedom from chains, from imprisonment, from enslavement by others. The rest is extension of this sense, or else metaphor.“

—  Isaiah Berlin Russo-British Jewish social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas 1909 - 1997

Five Essays on Liberty (2002), Introduction (1969)

„Government is best which is closest to the people. Yet that belief is betrayed by those State and local officials who engage in denying the right of citizens to vote. Their actions serve only to assure that their State governments and local governments shall be remote from the people, least representative of the people's will and least responsive to the people's wishes.“

—  Lyndon B. Johnson American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969) 1908 - 1973

1960s, Special message to Congress on the right to vote (1965)
Kontext: The essence of our American tradition of State and local governments is the belief expressed by Thomas Jefferson that Government is best which is closest to the people. Yet that belief is betrayed by those State and local officials who engage in denying the right of citizens to vote. Their actions serve only to assure that their State governments and local governments shall be remote from the people, least representative of the people's will and least responsive to the people's wishes.

„When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right of the majority to command, but I simply appeal from the sovereignty of the people to the sovereignty of mankind.“

—  Alexis De Tocqueville, kniha Democracy in America

Zdroj: Democracy in America

„People have been taught to expect far more from government than from freedom.“

—  James Bovard American journalist 1956

From The Bush Betrayal (Palgrave, 2004) http://www.jimbovard.com/Epigram%20page%20Bush%20Betrayal.htm

„I teach the people correct principles and they govern themselves.“

—  Joseph Smith, Jr. American religious leader and the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement 1805 - 1844

Quoted by John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, 10:57-58 (18 May 1862)
When asked how he governed his followers in Nauvoo, Illinois.

„But such their power who rule with tyrant sway,
Whom most they loath the people most obey.“

—  John Hoole British translator 1727 - 1803

Book XXXVII, line 774
Translations, Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

„But such their power who rule with tyrant sway,
Whom most they loath the people most obey.“

—  Ludovico Ariosto, kniha Orlando Furioso

Ma 'l populo facea come i più fanno,
Ch'ubbidiscon più a quei che più in odio hanno.
Canto XXXVII, stanza 104 (tr. J. Hoole)
Orlando Furioso (1532)

„Between a tyrant and a prince there is this single or chief difference, that the latter obeys the law and rules the people by its dictates, accounting himself as but their servant.“

—  John of Salisbury, Policraticus

Bk. 4, ch. 1
Policraticus (1159)
Originál: (la) Est ergo tyranni et principis hæc differentia sola, quod hic legi obtemperat, et ejus arbitrio populum regit, cujus se credit ministrum.

„People, who are afraid of intimacy and connection (and thus vulnerability) tend to cope with those feelings by becoming an island unto themselves. They become emotionally unavailable and disconnect from the other person as a defence. To withdraw in a relationship is to commit emotional divorce. And the #1 symptom of withdrawal is lack of communication.“

—  Teal Swan American spiritual teacher 1984

„With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves.“

—  Eric Hoffer American philosopher 1898 - 1983

Section 211
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)

„When everyone is part of the people’s congress, what need is there for an opposition? Opposition to what? You oppose a government! If there is no government, and the people govern themselves on their own, what are they going to oppose? Something that isn’t there?“

—  Muammar Gaddafi Libyan revolutionary, politician and political theorist 1942 - 2011

Interview with Oriana Fallaci (2 December 1979), Corriere della Sera
Interviews

„The right of revolution is an inherent one. When people are oppressed by their government, it is a natural right they enjoy to relieve themselves of the oppression, if they are strong enough, either by withdrawal from it, or by overthrowing it and substituting a government more acceptable. But any people or part of a people who resort to this remedy, stake their lives, their property, and every claim for protection given by citizenship — on the issue. Victory, or the conditions imposed by the conqueror — must be the result.“

—  Ulysses S. Grant 18th President of the United States 1822 - 1885

Zdroj: 1880s, Ch. 16

„It becomes superfluous when people no longer need the external force of the tyrant to make them renounce their particular interests, but when they become "universal citizens" by directly identifying the core of their being with this universality - in short, people no longer need the external master when they are educated into doing the job of discipline and subordination themselves.“

—  Slavoj Žižek Slovene philosopher 1949

Zdroj: Less Than Nothing (2012), Chapter Two, The Thing Itself: Hegel, pp. 198