Mastodawn

Choose your leaders
   with wisdom and forethought.
To be led by a coward
   is to be controlled
   by all that the coward fears.
To be led by a fool
   is to be led
   by the opportunists
   who control the fool.
To be led by a thief
   is to offer up
   your most precious treasures
   to be stolen.
To be led by a liar
   is to ask
   to be lied to.
To be led by a tyrant
   is to sell yourself
   and those you love
   into slavery.

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) American writer
Parable of the Talents, ch. 11, epigraph (1998)

More about this quote: wist.info/butler-octavia/48539…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #oliviabutler #candidate #choice #coward #democracy #despot #election #fool #leader #liar #thief #tyrant

Butler, Octavia - Parable of the Talents, ch. 11, epigraph (1998) | WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations Feb 9

A quotation from Montesquieu

Extreme obedience assumes ignorance in the one who obeys; it assumes ignorance even in the one who commands; he does not have to deliberate, to doubt, or to reason; he has only to want.

[L’extrême obéissance suppose de l’ignorance dans celui qui obéit; elle en suppose même dans celui qui commande: il n’a point à délibérer, à douter, ni à raisonner; il n’a qu’à vouloir.]

Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher
Spirit of Laws [The Spirit of the Laws; De l’esprit des lois], Book 4, ch. 3 (4.3) (1748) [tr. Cohler/Miller/Stone (1989)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montesquieu/81939/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #montesquieu #autocracy #autocrat #command #consideration #deliberation #despot #dictator #ignorance #obedience #reason #servility #tyranny #tyrant #want #will

Montesquieu - Spirit of Laws [The Spirit of the Laws; De l’esprit des lois], Book 4, ch. 3 (4.3) (1748) [tr. Cohler/Miller/Stone (1989)] | WIST Quotations

Extreme obedience assumes ignorance in the one who obeys; it assumes ignorance even in the one who commands; he does not have to deliberate, to doubt, or to reason; he has only to want. [L’extrême obéissance suppose de l’ignorance dans celui qui obéit; elle en suppose même dans celui qui…

WIST Quotations

Jack #Resists (🚫Trump) sic semper tyrannis Feb 8

“Young ladies, young ladies, I like ’em underage, see. Some say that’s statutory, but I say it’s mandatory.” - Kid Rock #resist #bluecrew #fascism #pedophilia #despot #fraud

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:zhy5q6ywonyzggakeff7zwr3/post/3meeb33urpg2v

WIST Quotations Feb 2

A quotation from Victor Hugo

Men are still men. The despot’s wickedness
Comes of ill teaching, and of power’s excess, —
Comes of the purple he from childhood wears,
Slaves would be tyrants if the chance were theirs.

[L’homme est homme toujours; les crimes du despote
Sont faits par sa puissance, ombre où son âme flotte,
Par la pourpre qu’il traîne et dont on le revêt,
Et l’esclave serait tyran s’il le pouvait.]

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Poem (1876), “The Vanished City [La Ville Disparue],” Legend of the Ages: New Series [La Légende des siècles: La Nouvelle Série], No. 4 (1877) [tr. Carrington (1885)]

More about this quote: wist.info/hugo-victor/81773/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #victorhugo #despot #error #humannature #power #revolution #slave #tyrant

Hugo, Victor - Poem (1876), "The Vanished City [La Ville Disparue]," Legend of the Ages: New Series [La Légende des siècles: La Nouvelle Série], No. 4 (1877) [tr. Carrington (1885)] | WIST Quotations

Men are still men. The despot's wickedness Comes of ill teaching, and of power's excess, -- Comes of the purple he from childhood wears, Slaves would be tyrants if the chance were theirs. [L’homme est homme toujours; les crimes du despote Sont faits par sa puissance, ombre où son âme…

WIST Quotations

Cornelius Flynn Jan 26

One day Trump and his works will be as Ozymandias:

‘I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.’
— Percy Byshe Shelley, 1818
#Ozymandias #Trump #USA #ICE #despot #king #fascist #HopeNotHate #Thoughts #future #Life

Giuseppe Michieli Jan 23

At #Davos, the #World Watched the #Rantings of a #Despot https://www.thenation.com/?post_type=article&p=584268

At Davos, the World Watched the Rantings of a Despot

President Donald Trump has turned his back on the liberal world order—and Europe is unlikely to follow.

The Nation

Mark Jan 22

Who are board of peace members; who has been invited?

About 50 countries received invitations from #Trump to join his #BoardOfPeace

So far, 25 have accepted the invites

This means that leaders like #Argentina’s Milei, #Israeli PM & wanted man Benjamin #Netanyahu #Belarusian #despot Alexander Lukashenko will become members

So far, 7 countries rejected invitations including:

- UK
- Norway
- Sweden
- Slovenia
- France
- Germany
- Italy

https://www.thenational.scot/news/25789107.board-peace-members-invited/

#authoritarian #DementiaDon

Sojourner00 Jan 21

The unitary executive theory (UET) used by SCOTUS and the fascist felon after the Trump v. United States, 603 U.S. 593 (2024) decision is destroying the U.S. government. Deciding law and governance by this decision and theory has created a despot that the country’s founders attempted to avoid in the creation of the federal government.
#tyranny #despot #fascism #DeathOfDemocracy #resist #releasetheepsteinfiles