Tyrant
A tyrant (Greek τύραννος, tyrannos) was originally one who used the power of the populace in an unconventional way to seize and control governmental power in a polis. Tyrants were a group of individuals who took over many Greek poleis during the uprising of the middle classes in the sixth and seventh centuries BC, ousting the aristocratic governments. Plato and Aristotle define a tyrant as, "one who rules without law, looks to his own advantage rather than that of his subjects, and uses extreme and cruel tactics—against his own people as well as others".
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Famous quotes containing the word tyrant:
“It was the fact that the tyrant must give place to him, or he to the tyrant, that distinguished him from all the reformers of the day that I know.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don’t turn against him, they crush those beneath them.”
—Emily Brontë (1818–1848)
“The tyrant custom, most grave senators,
Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war
My thrice-driven bed of down.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)