Dictators are not in the business of allowing elections that could remove them from their thrones.

Contrary to popular opinion, even totalitarian dictatorships are dependent on the population and the societies they rule.

The degree of liberty or tyranny in any government is, it follows, in large degree a reflection of the relative determination of the subjects to be free and their willingness and ability to resist efforts to enslave them.

As soon as you choose to fight with violence you're choosing to fight against your opponents best weapons and you have to be smarter than that.

Dictators are not in the business of allowing elections that could remove them from their thrones.

So, he reasoned, if you can identify the sources of a government's power - people working in civil service, police and judges, even the army - then you know what a dictatorship depends on for its existence.

Dictatorships are never as strong as they think they are, and people are never as weak as they think they are.