Demagogue Quotes

“Democracy is susceptible to being led astray by having scapegoats paraded in front of the electorate. Get the rich, the greedy, the criminals, the stupid leader and so on ad nauseam.”
― Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse: Dune

“As long as there are crazed or crafty leaders to play on old fears, a mob will turn cruel.”
― Leigh Brackett, The Long Tomorrow

“The great man of the masses. It is easy to give the recipe for what the masses call a great man. By all means, supply them with something that they find very pleasant, or, first, put the idea into their heads that this or that would be very pleasant, and then give it to them. But on no account immediately: let it rather be won with great exertion, or let it seem so. The masses must have the impression that a mighty, indeed invincible, strength of will is present; at least it must be seen to be there. Everyone admires a strong will, because no one has it, and everyone tells himself that, if he had it, there would be no more limits for him and his egoism. Now, if it appears that this strong will is producing something very unpleasant for the masses, instead of listening to its own covetous desires, then everyone admires it all the more, and congratulates himself. For the rest, let him have all the characteristics of the masses: the less they are ashamed before him, the more popular he is. So, let him be violent, envious, exploitative, scheming, fawning, grovelling, puffed up, or, according to the circumstances, all of the above.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits

“If we suggest that it is okay to make fun of everything except certain aspects of Islam because Muslims are much more sensitive than the rest of the population, isn’t that discrimination? Shouldn’t we treat the second largest religion in France exactly as we treat the first? It’s time to put an end to the revolting paternalism of the white, middle-class, “leftist” intellectual trying to coexist with these “poor, subliterate wretches.” “'I’m educated; obviously I get that 'Charlie Hebdo' is a humor newspaper because, first, I’m very intelligent, and second, it’s my culture. But you—well, you haven’t quite mastered nuanced thinking yet, so I’ll express my solidarity by fulminating against Islamaphobic cartoons and pretending not to understand them. I will lower myself to your level to show you that I like you. And if I need to convert to Islam to get even closer to you, I’ll do it!” These pathetic demagogues just have a ravenous need for recognition and a formidable domination fantasy to fulfill.”
― Charb, Open Letter: On Blasphemy, Islamophobia, and the True Enemies of Free Expression

“A demagogue must be neither an educated nor an honest man; he must be ignorant and a rogue.”
― Aristophanes

“A young house painter who fails miserably in his choice of profession is capable, also for a period of twenty years, of having himself talked about the world over, without having accomplished a single, useful, objective, practical piece of work. In this case, also, it is a tremendous noise that one day quietly fades away into an "all to no avail." The world of work continues on its calm, quiet, vitally necessary course. Of the great tumult, nothing remains but a chapter in falsely oriented history books, which are only a burden to our children.”
― Wilhelm Reich, The Mass Psychology of Fascism

“There is only a one thing worse than an idiot: An idiot with a following.”
― Narcissismus Decimus Maximus

“He was the vilest speaker I ever heard: vulgar, ignorant, not seeking to teach his hearers, but rather to stir in men as vulgar as himself the irrational excesses to which such people are prone; a whore among orators. Yet, when he denounced the men who were putting the City in fear, there was a kind of flame in him. He was a man so ignoble that if he remembered anything of the nature of excellence, excellence, I should think it was only so that he could taunt someone with the lack of it. He lived in spite and hate. And now he only invoked the good in the name of hatred; yet for a moment nobility glanced back at him, and made him brave. It was like seeing some mangy cur, who for years has lived on scraps and filth about the market, raising his hackles at a pack of wolves.”
― Mary Renault, The Last of the Wine

“Religion can only be a means to a set of values cherished by its living adherents. If those values relate only to a past or a presumed afterlife, it is a sign that religion has become a goal serving the ends of a priest or a demagogue and rest of the living are merely tools to serve that end. If it is not to become a fossil, it has to be a living faith serving the cherished values of the living.”
― R. N. Prasher

“Propaganda is where a demagogue plays pedagogue and starts a monologue to leave their audience agog.”
― Stewart Stafford

“If your ideology cannot withstand the harsh sunlight of reality, then you may very well be playing around with ideas, but it's doubtful you have an ideal.”
― A.E. Samaan

“Most of most politicians’ answers are long-winded implicit ways of saying: ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I don’t want you to know’.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“A wolf disguised as a sheep can not be found because it is bleating badly but because of the shit it leaves behind”
― Philip vd Veeken

“To make America’s least employable citizens dependent on the whims of the state, rather than their neighbors, is to clear a path for demagogues.”
― Michael Shindler

“As Starbuck discovers, simply being a good guy with a positive worldview is not enough to stop a force of nature like Ahab, who feeds on the fears and hatreds in us all.”
― Nathaniel Philbrick, Why Read Moby-Dick?

“This is where Melville is perhaps the most profound in his portrait of Ahab as the demagogue and dictator. In the end, even the fiercest of tyrants is done in, not by his own sad, used-up self, but by his enablers, the so-called professionals, who keep whispering in his ear."
p.105”
― Nathaniel Philbrick, Why Read Moby-Dick?

“The masses will fight to preserve their liberties and freedoms, save for those who have fallen under a spell of delusion by the demagogue.”
― RJ Intindola – (Gandolfo) – 2019

“On January 6, months of fearmongering and lies about voter fraud and a stolen election exploded into a deadly insurrection. Jones Day wasn't to blame, but it wasn't not to blame either. The firm had contributed to misapprehensions about the vulnerability of the electoral system. More important, it had nurtured, protected, and enabled Donald Trump since long before anyone took his candidacy seriously and for long after his demagogy was impossible to miss. Now the costs were clear. (303)”
― David Enrich, Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice