187 Quotes About Totalitarianism

Wraz z olbrzymim rozszerzeniem demokratyzmu (...) dyktatura proletariatu wprowadza pewną liczbę wyłączeń od zasady wolności (...). Ich zdławić musimy, by uwolnić ludzkość od niewolnictwa najemnego, ich opór trzeba złamać siłą (...).

Teilhard merely seems to set the problem of man, as the utopian sees it, on lofty heights; yet, hi terminology, which mixes archeology, sociology, biology, astronomy, and a vulgarized theology, can, in fact, be translated at every turn into the language of collectivism and of totalitarian polices.

Stalin’s Russia was a trap, in which even those running the system were caught. The leaders were trapped by fear of Stalin and even he was trapped by his fear of their desire to be rid of him. Everything he had to eat or drink had to be tasted by one of his colleagues first. Beria’s behavior at his death showed that his fear was only partly paranoia.

The organized lying practiced by totalitarian states is not, as is sometimes claimed, a temporary expedient of the same nature as military deception. It is something integral to totalitarianism, something that would still continue even if concentration camps and secret police forces had ceased to be necessary.

The point is as long as it doesn’t affect others in a negative manner then just do what you enjoy doing as often as possible, it’s simple. That philosophy should underpin society and it’s something that nanny states just don’t get – that life’s about enjoying yourself and if what you find enjoyable isn’t harming anyone else then it should be of no interest to the state

I hate your reasons. I don't want reasons. If you see somebody in pain, people like you reason and reason. You say - pain is a good thing, perhaps he'll be better for it one day. I want to let my heart speak... Yes. At the end of a gun.

Rather like "Orwellian", the term "Kafkaesque" has come to be used, often enough by those who have not read a word of Kafka, to describe what are perceived as typically or even uniquely modern traumas: existential alienation, isolation and insecurity, the labyrinth of state bureaucracy, the corrupt or whimsical abuse of totalitarian power, the impenetrable tangle of legal systems, the knock on the door in the middle of the night….

Minns en sak", sa hans överordnade, "du har varken far, mor, bröder eller systrar, partiet är det enda du har."Och så förstärktes denna egendomliga, tärande känsla: i sin tanklöshet och i sin lydnad fann han inte svaghet utan i stället en hotfull styrka.

The essential principle of totalitarianism is to make laws that are impossible to obey.