Aristotle, 4th century BC
Politics, Book 5, section 1314a
โAnd it is a mark of a tyrant to dislike anyone that is proud or free-spirited; for the tyrant claims for himself alone the right to bear that character, and the man who meets his pride with pride and shows a free spirit robs tyranny of its superiority and position of mastery; tyrants therefore hate the proud as undermining their authority.
๐๐ง๐ ๐ข๐ญ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ซ๐ค ๐จ๐ ๐ ๐ญ๐ฒ๐ซ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ก๐๐ฏ๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ง ๐จ๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐๐ข๐ ๐ง ๐๐ฑ๐ญ๐ซ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ก๐๐ซ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ง ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐ณ๐๐ง๐ฌ ๐๐ฌ ๐ ๐ฎ๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐ญ ๐ญ๐๐๐ฅ๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐๐ง๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ, ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ญ ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐ณ๐๐ง๐ฌ ๐๐ซ๐ ๐ก๐จ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐ฅ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ซ๐ฌ ๐ฆ๐๐ค๐ ๐ง๐จ ๐๐ฅ๐๐ข๐ฆ ๐๐ ๐๐ข๐ง๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ก๐ข๐ฆ.
These and similar habits are characteristic of tyrants and preservative of their office, but they lack no element of baseness.
And broadly speaking, they are all included under three heads; for tyranny aims at three things:
First to keep its subjects humble - for a humble-spirited man would not plot against anybody,
Second to have them continually distrust one another - for a tyranny is not destroyed until some men come to trust each other, owing to which tyrants also make war on the respectable, as detrimental to their rule not only because of their refusal to submit to despotic rule, but also because they are faithful to one another and to the other citizens, and do not inform against one another nor against the others;
Third is lack of power for political action - since nobody attempts impossibilities, so that nobody tries to put down a tyranny if he has not power behind him.โ