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Tyranny offers relief from the burden of sanity and a licence to enact forbidden impulses of hatred and violence. By acting on these impulses and releasing them in their subjects tyrants give people a kind of happiness, which as individuals they may be incapable of achieving.

— John Gray The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths (2013)

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More quotes by John Gray

In the life of the academic mind, the owl of Minerva seldom flies as early as the dusk.

Gray's Anatomy: Selected Writings (2009)

The evil of totalitarianism is not only that it fails to protect specific liberties but that it extinguishes the very possibility of freedom.

Gray's Anatomy: Selected Writings (2009)

It is rare that individuals value their freedom more than the comfort that comes with servility.

If you want to understand the beliefs that are shaping global politics, read the Book of Revelation.

The result of toppling tyranny in divided countries is usually civil war and ethnic cleansing.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Gray (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.