Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
Tyrants preserve themselves by sowing fear and mistrust among the citizens by means of spies, by distracting them with foreign wars, by eliminating men of spirit who might lead a revolution, by humbling the people, and making them incapable of decisive action.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Tyrants maintain control through fear, manipulation, and suppression of potential leaders.
This quote from Aristotle highlights the methods by which tyrants assert and maintain their power over a populace. By instilling fear and distrust, using spies to monitor citizens, engaging in foreign conflicts to divert attention, and oppressing capable individuals who could incite resistance, tyrants create an environment where people are discouraged from taking decisive actions against oppression. The emphasis is on the systematic degradation of civic virtue and unity as a strategy for sustaining authoritarian rule.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of transparency in government, one might quote Aristotle's insight on tyranny.
More from Aristotle
All quotes →Those who cannot bravely face danger are the slaves of their attackers.
For often, when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream.
You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
But if nothing but soul, or in soul mind, is qualified to count, it is impossible for there to be time unless there is soul, but only that of which time is an attribute, i.e. if change can exist without soul.
The whole is more than the sum of its parts.
Similar quotes
The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort.
King of the animals — as thou hast described him — I should rather say king of the beasts, thou being the greatest — because thou hast spared slaying them, in order that they may give thee their children for the benefit of the gullet, of which thou hast attempted to make a sepulchre for all animals; and I would say still more, if it were allowed me to speak the entire truth.
The fact that the most powerful and significant connections in our lives are (at the time) invisible to us seems to me a compelling argument for religious reverence rather than skeptical empiricism as a response to life's meaning.
It's a difficult competition against silence, because silence is a perfect language, the only language which says with no words.
Maybe the best thing would be to forget being right or wrong about people and just go along for the ride. But if you can do that -- well, lucky you.
Sitting here with one's knitting, one just sees the facts. -"The Blood-Stained Pavement