The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam

by Barbara W. Tuchman

the power to command frequently causes failure to think;

The power of command stops thinking

Prison does not silence ideas whose time has come, a fact that generally escapes despots, who by nature are rulers of little wisdom.

Priso n xos not silence ideas

Confronted by menace, or what is perceived as menace, governments will usually attempt to smash it, rarely to examine it, understand it, define it.

Goverments do not exemime memace, they smzh it

You may exert power over, but you can never govern an unwilling people.”

Exern power

The attitude was a sense of superiority so dense as to be impenetrable. A feeling of this kind leads to ignorance of the world and of others because it suppresses curiosity.

Superiority lead to ignorance a dack of curiosity

No one is so sure of his premises as the man who knows too little.

Man ho knkws too little