autocrate

Updated: May 31, 2025

While a roi faineant may fulfil effectively all the essential duties of sovereignty, an autocrate faineant is an absurdity. In these circumstances, it is idle to speculate as to the future. All we can do is to await patiently the development of events, and in all probability it is the unexpected that will happen.

Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace - Russia

That is equivalent to saying of a political regime that it is a controlled "liberty," just as in the time of the Tsars it was said that there existed a Monarchie constitutionnelle sous un autocrate. Constantinople under the Treaty of Sèvres is the free capital of the Turkish Empire under the reserve of the conditions which are contained in the treaty and limit exactly that liberty.

Francesco Saverio Nitti - Peaceless Europe