Nero

“Hidden talent counts for nothing”. –Nero

J.G. Ballard

“Human beings today… are surrounded by huge institutions we can never penetrate: the City, the banking system, political advertising conglomerates, vast entertainment enterprises. They’ve made themselves user friendly, but they define the tastes to which we conform. They’re rather subtle, subservient tyrants, but no less sinister for that”. –J.G. Ballard

Diogenes

“The mob is the mother of tyrants”. –Diogenes

Barbara Tuchman

“Every successful revolution puts on in time the robes of the tyrant it has deposed”. –Barbara Tuchman

Simon Bolivar

“A state too expensive in itself, or by virtue of its dependencies, ultimately falls into decay; its free government is transformed into tyranny; it disregards the principles which it should preserve, and finally degenerates into despotism”. –Simon Bolivar

Aristotle

“Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms”. –Aristotle

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

“Tin-pot dictators have ravaged Asia, Latin America, and Africa. In the aftermath, they have done more to promote communism than the works of Marx and Engels, Lenin, and Mao. They are the worst tyrants of the post-colonial period. They have destroyed time-honored institutions and treated their people like animals”. –Zulfikar Ali Bhutto