It is a socialist idea that making profits is a vice; I consider the real vice is making losses.
Winston ChurchillRead
Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Dictators maintain control through fear and oppression, but their power is precarious.
This quote highlights the dangerous position of dictators who, despite their apparent power, live in constant fear of losing control. They rely on oppressive means to maintain authority, yet their ability to sustain this power is always at risk, much like a rider on a hungry tiger that could turn on them at any moment.
Themes
PowerDictatorshipControlFearOppression
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about authoritarian regimes, one might reference this quote to highlight the fragility of tyrannical power.
More from Winston Churchill
All quotes βThe United States is like a gigantic boiler. Once the fire is lit under it, there's no limit to the power it can generate.
Winston ChurchillRead
Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.
Winston ChurchillRead
I will not pretend that if I had to choose between communism and Nazism I would choose communism.
Winston ChurchillRead
Mountaintops inspire leaders but valleys mature them.
Winston ChurchillRead
True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
Winston ChurchillRead
Similar quotes
By their subjugation of the press, the political powers in America have conferred on themselves the greatest of political blessings -- Gyges' ring of invisibility. And they have left the American people more deeply baffled by their own country's politics than any people on earth. Our public realm lies steeped in twilight, and we call that twilight news.'
Walter KarpRead
In time of this grave national danger, when all excess income should go to win the war, no American citizen ought to have a net income, after he has paid his taxes, of more than $25,000 a year.
Franklin D. RooseveltRead
[Y]ou will understand the game behind the curtain too well not to perceive the old trick of turning every contingency into a resource for accumulating force in the government.
James MadisonRead
Politics, as a practise, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.
Henry AdamsRead
An informed citizenry is at the heart of a dynamic democracy.
Thomas JeffersonRead
There is no more dangerous thing for a democracy than a foreign policy based on presidential preventive war.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.Read