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Absolute democratic government is as much a tyranny as despotism.

— Simón Bolívar

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Government

More quotes by Simón Bolívar

Damn it, how will I ever get out of this labyrinth?

The people become accustomed to obeying him, and he becomes accustomed to commanding, hence the origin of usurpation and tyranny.

The Angostura Address (1819)

He who serves a revolution plows in the sea.

Colombians! My last wish is for the happiness of the patria. If my death contributes to the end of partisanship and the consolidation of the union, I shall be lowered in peace into my grave.

The distinguishing characteristic of small republics is stability: the character of large republics is mutability.

All Simón Bolívar quotes →

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Ill can he rule the great, that cannot reach the small.

Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene (1589)

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

James Madison

Bureaucracy and social harmony are inversely proportional to each other.

Leon Trotsky The Revolution Betrayed (1936)

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

John Adams

Attribution

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