The slave has his pride; he agrees to obey only the most vigorous despot.

Property is the right to use & abuse; it engenders despotism.

We are now forming a republican government. Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.

More than once in history have people revolted against the inequalities of life and refused to submit to the restraints of laws and creeds. They have often gone through a period of communism and red terror in the hope of realizing ultimately the Perfect State. Their leaders, undoubtedly sincere at first, espouse the utopian dream, declaring themselves the exponents of its ideals, the promised messengers of its blessings. But with the material for revolt ready at hand, and unable to resist the seductions of nascent power, they soon undergo that transformation which history identifies, often not unjustly, with demagogy, if they fail, or with autocracy, if they succeed. In either case, by utilizing the elements of negation in Society, they become apostles of violence, proclaiming the theory of "creative destruction." But instead of creating a utopia on the ruins of their making, they only succeed in setting up, as history shows, another government, which, no matter how just and sound its foundations are in theory, soon becomes in practice more despotic and corrupt.

Down with you and your despotic rule!

Democracy has, therefore, two excesses to avoid—the spirit of inequality, which leads to aristocracy or monarchy, and the spirit of extreme equality, which leads to despotic power.

It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. In its service new mercenaries sought to regiment the people, their labor, and their property.

The despot was seen surrounded by demonstrators.

All the old despots were demagogues; at least, they were demagogues whenever they were really trying to please or impress the demos. If they poured out beer for their vassals it was because both they and their vassals had a taste for beer. If (in some slightly different mood) they poured melted lead on their vassals, it was because both they and their vassals had a strong distaste for melted lead.

The election of Donald Trump served as a rallying point for those who had long been trying to warn the public about America's slow descent into despotism.